2023 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – BARCELONA
- Wednesday, May 17th & Thursday, May 18th
- Club Natació Sant Andreu, Barcelona, Spain
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap
- Entries/Live Results
- Livestream
WOMEN’S 400 IM – FINAL
- Mare Nostrum Record – 4:30.75, Katinka Hosszu (HUN) 2016
- World Championships ‘A’ cut – 4:43.06
- Paris 2024 OQT – 4:38.53
GOLD – Mio Narita (JPN), 4:39.22
SILVER – Anastasia Gorbenko (ISR), 4:40.76
BRONZE – Boglarka Kapas (HUN), 4:40.97
Anastasia Gorbenko is on fire in Barcelona this week. The 19-year-old Israeli star broke the Israeli National Record in the women’s LCM 200 IM yesterday on the first day of the Barcelona stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour, then turned around and took down the 400 IM record tonight.
Gorbenko held the previous record in the 400 IM as well, and it had stood for quite a while. The previous mark, which was also her career best, was a 4:41.48, which she swam at the FFN Golden Tour in Nice in February of 2020, three years ago and when she was just 16 years old. Tonight, she finally cracked that mark with a 4:40.76 for second in Barcelona, inching towards getting under that 4:40 mark.
Here is a split comparison between Gorbenko’s performance tonight in Barcelona and her previous record swim in February of 2020.
| Splits | Anastasia Gorbenko – 2023 Mare Nostrum Tour- Barcelona | Anastasia Gorbenko – 2020 Golden Tour – Nice |
| 50m | 29.32 | 29.83 |
| 100m | 33.70 (1:03.02) | 34.19 (1:04.02) |
| 150m | 37.76 (1:40.78) | 37.34 (1:41.36) |
| 200m | 36.63 (2:17.41) | 36.55 (2:17.91) |
| 250m | 40.69 (2:58.10) | 39.72 (2:57.63) |
| 300m | 39.08 (3:37.18) | 40.43 (3:38.06) |
| 350m | 32.74 (4:09.92) | 32.11 (4:10.17) |
| 400m | 30.84 (4:40.76) | 31.31 (4:41.48) |
| FINAL TIME | 4:40.76 | 4:41.48 |
Here is the splits breakdown with only the 100 split for each stroke:
| Split | Anastasia Gorbenko – 2023 Mare Nostrum Tour- Barcelona | Anastasia Gorbenko – 2020 Golden Tour – Nice |
| Butterfly | 1:03.02 | 1:04.02 |
| Backstroke | 1:14.39 | 1:13.89 |
| Breaststroke | 1:19.77 | 1:20.15 |
| Freestyle | 1:03.58 | 1:03.42 |
| FINAL TIME | 4:40.76 | 4:41.48 |
As the splits show, Gorbenko’s swim tonight versus her previous best are actually quite different. She was out exactly one second faster tonight on fly, but she was slower on back and on free, while her breast split was slightly faster than her 2020 performance. On top of that, even though Gorbenko was a tick slower overall on freestyle tonight than in her previous record swim, she came home much faster on the last 50 specifically, putting up that very quick 30.84 to close out the race tonight.
On a more general note, the splits show that Gorbenko does a great job of descending, or building, each 100, so that the second 50 is faster than the first. She was doing it back in 2020, although her second breast 50 was a bit slower than the first then, and she did a marvelous job of it tonight, splitting faster on the second 50 of back, breast, and free.