Femke Heemskerk Becomes 6th-Fastest 100m Freestyler of All Time at Eindhoven Cup

Day 3 of the Eindhoven Swim Cup continued today maintaining the themes of speed and tenacity.  Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos got the job done in the women’s 200m butterfly, clocking a swift 2:08.13, just off her previous 2015 best of 2:08.07 in Italy last March.  Jakabos now owns the world’s 6th and 7th-fastest times in the event up to this point this year.

The next event saw The Netherlands’ Sebastiaan Verschuren take the top spot in the 200m freestyle, leading the field in his winning time of 1:46.09, a time which surpasses Verschuren’s quickest effort from all of 2014 (1:47.16). His time from tonight sits just behind that of Yannick Agnel’s 1:45.97 for the 2nd-fastest time on the world rankings, at least for now.

Hungary scored another win, this time in the women’s 400m freestyle, where Boglarka Kapas brought it home in a final time of 4:08.97 to claim victory in the event almost a full two seconds over the rest of the field.  Hungary’s László Cseh followed immediately with his 100m butterfly win, taking the race in a time of 51.97 to position him as 3rd-fastest in the world only behind Konrad Czerniak (Poland) and Jack Conger (USA).

In the 50m breaststroke finals, The Netherlands’ Moniek Nijhuis led the women with her 30.77 winning time, just about a tenth slower than her quick prelims race of 30.65, but was still the only female to dip under the 31-second threshold in both races.  Nijhuis now sits atop the world rankings, as the next closest clocking thus far this year is the 30.98 Breeja Larson (USA) just registered at this weekend’s Canadian Trials.

South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh and Serbia’s Caba Siladji charged to the wall and wound up touching in the very same time in the men’s edition of the breaststroke sprint, each clocking a meet record of 27.17 for their efforts.  Thus, they are tied for the 2nd-fastest time in the world in this 50m breaststroke event, only behind the sub-27 Adam Peaty from Great Britain, whose 26.88 from the BUCS LC championships stands alone.

Perhaps the most notable race of the night, however, was that of the women’s 100m freestyle semi-final, where home-country hero Femke Heemskerk blasted out a 52.79.  This not only set a new Dutch Championships record, but it stamps Heemskerk’s names in the record books as 2015’s fastest time thus far, as well as the 6th-fastest performer of all time in the event.  Heemskerk dropped a massive +1 seconds over the 53.63 she registered this past February’s Golden Tour.

However, remember this was only the semi-final, which, not only makes Heemskerk’s time that much more impressive, but also means that both Sarah Sjostrom (53.29 in semis) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (53.69 in semis) will be hot on Heemskerk’s heels on their way to trying to steal the Eindhoven 100m freestyle crown out from under her.

The final day of Eindhoven Cup competition continues with prelims tomorrow at 9 am local time.

Full Meet Results