The career of former World Junior Record Holder Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands continues on its upward trajectory, as the 16-year-old clocked two new Dutch Age Group Records while competing at her home country’s first Grand Prix of 2016 over the weekend.
In the first KNZB Challenger meet in Drachten, Steenbergen wowed the crowd with a remarkable duo of Dutch National Age Group Records in two freestyle events, the 100m and 200m, while also scoring wins in the 400m free and 100m butterfly.
First, Steenbergen’s 200 freestyle outing of 2:00.42 sets a new 16-year-old age group mark for the Dutch woman, giving her the victory in Drachten by over 4 seconds. The time ranks among Steenbergen’s top 5, with her fastest having been the 1:58.99 she swam to earn silver in the event in Baku at the inaugural European Games last summer.
Steenbergen’s next victim was the 100m freestyle, where she registered a time of 55.57 to wrangle in her 2nd age group record. This time surpasses the 55.91 Steenbergen scored at this same meet last year, which gave her the 15-year-old Dutch age group mark, although she’s been as fast as 53.97 while earning the gold in Baku.
Wrapping up the meet, Steenbergen also clocked victorious times across the 100 fly and 400 freestyle events, winning in marks of 1:02.35 and 4:17.44, respectively.
Steenbergen has been on a tear since arriving on the international swimming scene as a young 14-year-old. She has since continued her success through a stunning performance at the inaugural European Games last year, where she collected 1 gold and 5 silver medals. The now-16-year-old also became a senior meet bronze medalist, having earned 3rd place in the 100m IM at the European Short Course Championships in Netanya, Israel.
Look for Steenbergen to compete at the end of the month at the 2nd Dutch Grand PRix, The Hague, scheduled for February 26-28th.
I don’t quite understand how she set a new national age group record of 55.5 when she has already swam 53.9. Obviously, the Dutch have different rules for NAG records.
Ferb – the Dutch age group records are ‘per year’; Steenbergen indeed holds the 15-year-old girls’ record in the 100 free with the 53.97 from 2015. But, Steenbergen turned 16 January 11th, therefore, her time of 55.5 now surpasses the previous record of 56.48 from Kromowidjojo for 16-year-olds. – Retta
Loretta, your article says her 55.91 from the same meet last year gave her the 15-year old record, although she went 53.97 last summer in Baku. Not having known when her birthday is, I took that to mean that the 53.97 didn’t count as the either the 15-year old record or the 16-year old record. But I suppose she could have set the 15-year old record at 55.91 last February, and then rebroke that record — by a full two seconds — in the summer.
I thought maybe the Dutch record had to be broken on Dutch soil, or something like that.
I think it’s because of the age at which the time was set. Looking for some kind of comparison on the U.S. age group records on usaswimming.org, I notice that Dagny knutson is No. 3 on the 15-16 group for 200m free at 1:57:73 but No. 6 on the 17-18 group with 1:57:83. I didn’t look any further than that but there are surely more examples.
The age record in NL are based on a calender year. So anyone born in 2000, can break an age record in the category 16 year, between the first of January and the 31st of December. Each age has it own record.
Kromowidjojo was the old record holder 100m freestyle with 56.48.
Van Rouwendaal was the old record holder 200m freestyle with 2.00.59