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French, Netherlands, Israel National Champs

French, Netherlands, Israel National Champs

LIVE with David Popovici! Leon Marchand becomes 4th man under 2:07.

SWIM NERD
June 12, 2023

Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd Newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming. This week...

🌎 Fast Swims Around the World
📰 Swimming Headlines
📜 Set of the Week
🤡 Swimming Meme of the Week

This Week in Swimming is brought to you by...

Imagine Swimming, New York City’s Premier Swim School, is looking for instructors and coaches! Imagine offers aquatics for all. Beginning with infant Baby Splash courses, Parent & Me classes, group lessons for ages 3 & up, on to competitive club teams (including a swim team, a water polo team, and a synchronized swimming team), and finally adult classes for all levels. There is something for every swimmer at Imagine.

🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

National Championships

Several nations held their National Championships/Worlds selection meets this week, with notable swims all over the place:

Israel

Tomer Frankel busted out the best swim of the meet, a 51.14 100 fly that absolutely crushed the Israeli national record, formerly held by fellow Big Ten NCAA swimmer Gal Groumi. Frankel also hit a big national record with a 48.18 100 free. Those times guaranteed him a spot at Worlds and next year’s Olympics.
Denis Loktev took second in that 100 free, also under the old national standard, in 48.54. He got the upper hand on Frankel with a national record in the longer sprint, a 1:46.17 200 free which broke his own national record by half a second. Frankel finished second in that race in 1:46.90, with Groumi in third in 1:47.39. That’s three legs of a strong 4×200 free relay, and Israel does have some firepower for the fourth leg with guys like Ron Polonsky and Daniel Namir depending how they choose to select their team.
The winner of the women’s 200 free, Daria Golovati, swam a 1:58.24 that broke Anastasia Gorbenko’s Israeli youth record and qualified her for Worlds. She’d also break the Israeli record in the 400 free with a 4:11.40.
Another Big Ten NCAA swimmer, Bar Soloveychik, undercut his 400 free national record with a 3:48.55.

Netherlands

The best of Dutch were on point this week in Amersfoort:

The country’s breaststroke is in good hands with Tes Schouten and Arno Kamminga. The former set a new national record with a 2:21.71 200, also winning the 100 in 1:06.45. The former took a sweep of the stroke in 27.32/59.08/2:10.13. Notably, all those swims were meet records.
Marit Steenbergen continues to carry on the Netherlands’s legacy of freestylers, hitting PRs in the 100 (52.98) and 200 (1:55.58), also winning the 50 (24.82), the 100 fly, (58.55 PR), and the 200 IM (2:10.88).
Nyls Kostanje came within a tenth of his PR and national record from last year’s Worlds with a 51.49 100 fly win.

France

Still in progress as the meet started Sunday, but fireworks already:

Superstar Leon Marchand blasted a 2:06.59 200 breast for a new French record, becoming the fourth fastest performer in history. With splits of 28.89/32.13/32.68/32.89, he isn’t quite using the same blast out and try to hold on strategy he used to great effect at NCAAs in March, but maybe we’ll see that come Worlds. That Phelps 400 IM record looks more and more in danger.
Marchand wasn’t the only swimmer with a 200 breast PR - Antoine Marc broke through the 2:10 barrier with a 2:09.68 silver medal PR in the race.
Charlotte Bonnet, typically known as more of a sprint freestyler, dropped two seconds of her PR with a 2:10.64 200 IM win. That freestyle came in handy with a 30.29 final split.
Logan Fontaine joined the PR train with a two second drop for a 3:46.60 400 free win. That race is looking real crowded come July!

Fast Swims Around the USA

George Haines Invite

Luka Mijatovic, the 14 year old who made waves breaking SCY age group records this spring, is back at it in the long pool. This time he broke the 13-14 national record with a 3:56.36 400. He compiled a big bunch of other fast times as well: a 1:51.70 200 free, 15:47.19 mile, 4:33.29 400 IM, and 2:10.98 200 back.
The Bazooka wasn’t the only outstanding youngster in Santa Clara. 13 year old Shareef Elaydi is a name to watch in the butterfly races especially. He went 26.07/56.19/2:05.30 in those races, adding 1:05.89/2:26.47 breaststrokes as well.
Belgian, and Cal NCAA swimmer Lucas Henveaux went 1:48.61/3:50.67 mid-D frees. Good tuneup after he had a breakout in long course at the Belgian champs a couple months ago.

Tristan Vessel Invite

Brooks Curry saw the 48.7 100s from Jonny Kulow and Matt King last weekend and decided it was time to make a splash. He went 21.84/48.51/1:48.37 sprints, all in prelims. That 100 free is a US-leading time for the season.
Jenna Bridges had a breakout year for LSU in the NCAA, winning a conference championship in the 200 fly, and continued that momentum with some big PRs here with 1:00.64/2:11.83 in her specialty stroke.
Another Tiger, Mitch Mason ripped 27.72/1:00.87 breaststroke swims. That’s a threat to final at Nationals.
27-year-old Matthew Klotz crushed a World Deaf Record 25.32 50 back, and also neared his 100 back record with a 56.28 100 back.

South Texas Open

The Foster boys are at it again in Texas. Jake went a PR in the 100 breast (1:00.22) and was within a half second of his best 200 (2:09.38). Strong splitting on that 200 race (29.15/32.78/33.84/33.61). Caspar Corbeau touched him out in the 100 (1:00.14), less than half a second off his best.
Carson Foster, meanwhile, hit a 1:54.68 200 fly and 1:56.80/4:14.57 IMs.
Among other Longhorn swimmers, Coby Carrozza hit a PR 100 free (50.07).
Lydia Jacoby and Anna Elendt continue to make perhaps the best breaststroke duo in the world - they went 1:06.30/1:06.85 100s and 30.58/30.44 50s respectively.

BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

Breaststroke kick on your back
Bob Bowman preparing Leon Marchand to be special
Back when 1:43 200 Freestyle was “Impossible”
What Shaun Jordan said to Josh Davis when he was in a funk
The BEST start drill for entry
Caeleb Dressel underwater
EO Lab’s new handset for swimming technique
Improve your dolphin kick through skill development drills
Professional power swimming with Bruno Fratus
Caeleb Dressel: Start, Underwater, Breakout
Leon Marchand 2:06.59 200 Breaststroke

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

Today…

LIVE with World Record Holder David Popovici

Come ask questions on YouTube!

Tomorrow morning at 9 AM EST...

Catch up on all the world's fastest swimming and stories with Brett Hawke, Sonny Trigg, and Meagan Nay on Dive Inside LIVE.

Wednesday...

#321 Evolution of Sports in Arab Nations with Dr. Zied Abbes

Take a closer look at the evolution of youth sports programs and the changing perception of athletics in Arab nations through an engaging and informative interview with Dr. Zied Abbes, author of, “How to become a great swimming teacher”. Discover how sports, once viewed primarily as recreation, are now recognized as a path towards growth and success.