At the 3rd stop on the 2013 Swedish Grand Prix circuit, the headlines came from a more unusual place than we typically see at these high-level Swedish events. In Jonkoping, 18-year old Johannes Skagius really began emerging into a true star by breaking the Swedish National Records in both the 50 and the 100 breaststrokes.
First came the 50, where he was a 27.73 in prelims, to which he added a 27.76 in finals for victory by a second-and-a-half. That heat swim broke the National Record from 2008 set by Martin Gustavsson at 27.93, and his previous personal best of 28.06 set earlier this year at the Eindhoven Swim Cup. It also put him under the FINA Automatic Qualifying Time for the World Championships.
Then, in the final of the 100 breaststroke, he put up a truly impressive swim with a 1:00.85 for another massive victory (more than three seconds ahead of the rest of the field). That broke the National Record of 1:01.60 set in 2008 by Jonas Andersson: a record that Skagius was within .01 of already last year.
In a global sense, that time isn’t all that highly ranked, but considering that he’s only a few months past his 18th birthday – it’s only four-tenths off of the record for the same age group in the United States.
Beyond him, the typical stars were out in Sweden. Sarah Sjostrom won the women’s 100 fly in 58.72, followed by 16-year old countrymate Louise Hansson in 59.86. She also took victory in the 50 free (25.14) and the 200 free (1:58.66) in her only other two races of the day. Though not her best performances of the year, this was a typically-fast in-season meet for Sjostrom that would be the envy of most other swimmers of her same specialty.
To increase her chance winning individual medal, I hope Sjoestrom swims only 100 free/fly in Barcelona, or 100 fly and 200 free, and NOT add any other individual event.
It’s been a long time since she won that 100 fly in Rome.