2015 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS AT THE WINGATE INSTITUTE IN NETANYA, ISRAEL
- Wednesday, December 2nd-6th
- Prelims at 9:30 am local (2:30 AM EST)/Finals at 5:30 pm local (10:30 am EST)
- Meet Information
- Event Timeline
- Live Stream: LEN Webcast
- Live Results
On Day Four of the 2015 LEN European Short Course Championships, Katinka Hosszu has scratched out the the championship final of the Women’s 200 scm free. The Hungarian’s move puts the full focus on the 200 IM, a world record she’s held at 2:01.86 since Doha last year. She’s no stranger to the top seed spot, her 1:53.39 in the 200 free placed her comfortably in the top spot, but she’s opted out for a chance to race her medley event at full capacity. She stepped up in prelims to swim the medley in 2:05.66 and was just off her 2013 meet record. She’ll also have to swim the semis of the Women’s 50 back but that’s warm-up for the Hungarian National Champion. With the way Hosszu’s been swimming at these championships, including her monster 400 and 100 IM record swim, she’s primed to challenge her previous mark.
It’s a good time to be a fan of the sport. Just think, by Rio next year, there will be about 10 women with 1:55.5 LC speed (Sjostrom, Ledecky, Schmitt, Franklin, Hosszu, McKeon, Popova, Heemskerk, Pellegrini, O’Connor). Possibly more. Consider how competitive this has gotten, when in London 1:55.5 was good enough for silver! We could see a final where the slowest time is 1:55.5. That would be the equivalent of 1:45 flat on the men’s side, yet last World’s winning time was 1:45.1. I predict the same thing will happen on the men’s side. There’s going to be at least 6 guys swimming sub 1:45 in Rio. Crazy.
Victor i would agree but look at all the depth there was at the 200free at world championships… And no one ended up even dipping under 1:55. :/ no one pushed the pace and ledecky ended up winning in a time that was slower than multiple of the other girls season bests