Finland Championships: Emilia Pikkarainen Sets Trio of National Records

HELSINKI, Finland, June 28. THE Finland Championships offered up several national records with Emilia Pikkarainen taking down a trio of standards throughout the course of the meet.

Pikkarainen raced to a time of 2:14.23 in the women's 200 IM to crush the national record of 2:17.00 set by Hanna-Maria Seppala in March 2009. She returned in the women's 200 fly with a time of 2:11.77. The performance knocked more than a second off her national record of 2:12.94 set in May 2009. She then lowered her women's 100 fly national standard with a 59.39. The readout cleared her 59.48 set in May 2009.

Noora Laukkanen cut more than a second from the women's 200 breast national record with a time of 2:32.20. Eeva Saarinen held the previous mark with a time of 2:33.36 set in March 2007. On the final day of swimming, Seppala smashed her women's 200 free national standard with a 1:58.68. The swim shaved nearly two seconds from her record of 2:00.37 set in May 2009.

Katja Lehtonen lowered her women's 50 breast national mark with a time of 31.25. The top time beat her previous record of 32.11 set last month. Andrei Tuomala edged the men's 50 free national mark with a 22.41. The performance wiped out the 22.48 set by Matti Rajakyla set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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