Sarah Sjostrom Hits World-Leading Times In 50 Free And 50 Fly As Mare Nostrum Wraps Up In Monaco

by Liz Byrnes - Europe Correspondent

21 May 2023, 10:49am

Sarah Sjostrom Hits World-Leading Times In 50 Free And 50 Fly As Mare Nostrum Wraps Up In Monaco

Sarah Sjostrom hit world-leading times in the 50 free and 50 fly while Lara Van Niekerk went top of the 50m breaststroke rankings as the Mare Nostrum tour wrapped up in Monaco.

• Link to results
• Day 1 report
• A Glance At How Sarah Sjostrom Has Owned The 50m Butterfly
• Race Video Of Sarah Sjostrom’s 50 Fly World Record

Sjostrom went 23.82 in the 50 free with the sprints contested as skins – back-to-back races operating on a knockout basis, with the two remaining swimmers racing each other in a head-to-head final race.

The Swede clocked the time in the semis – slicing 0.13 from her 2017 meet mark of 23.95 – to eclipse her 23.92 from the Swim Open Stockholm last month.

It was the 11th fastest time in history headed by Sjostrom’s world record of 23.67 at the 2017 World Championships.

In the Monaco final, the world record-holder won in 23.90 ahead of Campbell who clocked 24.60.

Lara van Niekerk: Photo Courtesy: Anton Geyser/SouthAfricanSportsImages

Sjostrom also set a meet mark of 24.89 in the 50 fly – 0.01 inside her 2017 record – with Melanie Henique clocking 25.96.

It was the seventh-fastest time in history headed by her 25.43 WR from 2014.

While no other swimmer has gone inside 25secs, Sjostrom has now done so on 15 occasions.

The Swede owns the top three times with 25.04 from the Swim Open Stockholm and 25.25 at the Giant Open as well as Sunday’s world lead,

Van Niekerk went 29.75 in the 50br, 0.02 outside her Commonwealth record of 29.73 and saw her displace world record-holder Benedetta Pilato and her 29.84 from the Italian Championships at the top of the rankings.

Imogen Clark of Britain went 30.21 in the final.

Ingrid Wilm went 27.37 in the 50 back, another meet mark which also catapulted her second in the rankings behind Kaylee McKeown’s 27.31.

Michael Andrew won the men’s 50 fly in 22.85, 0.02 ahead of European champion Thomas Ceccon who clocked 22.87.

They were the second and third-fastest swims in the world this year, eclipsed only by Oleg Kostin‘s 22.62 at the Russian Championships.

Andrew returned for the 50 free duel where the winning margin was again 0.02 but the American didn’t get the touch this time, that going to Szebasztian Szabo in 21.72 to 21.74.

Ponti Soars To Fly Mark In Monaco

Olympic bronze medallist Noè Ponti set a meet record in the 100 fly in Monaco.

Noe Ponti: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Ponti – whose Swiss record stands at 50.74 – split 24.30/26.98 to stop the clock in 51.28 and slice 0.30secs from the previous meet mark of 51.58 that has stood to Chad le Clos since 2016.

He went 12th in the rankings – headed by Josh Liendo and his 50.36 – with a season’s best.

Katsuhiro Matsumoto (51.40) and Jakub Majerski (51.86) were next home with Tomoru Honda – who set a 200 fly meet mark of 1:54.22 on Saturday – locked out by 0.03 in 51.89.

Matsumoto returned to win the 200 free in 1:47.41 ahead of Hadrien Salvan in 1:48.41.

Haughey Takes Another Journey Inside 53

Siobhan Haughey completed  a clean sweep of the 100 free events by adding the Monaco title to her Canet and Barcelona efforts.

The Olympic silver medallist stopped the clock at 52.88, for her third journey inside 53 in the space of a week following her 52.85 in Canet which was followed by a meet mark of 52.50 as she went top of the rankings in Barcelona.

Victory saw her complete the 100-200 double after she set a meet mark of 1:55.03 on Saturday, the Hong Kong swimmer having doubled up at each stop of the tour.

Cate Campbell, who won bronze behind Haughey in Tokyo, was second in 53.52 with Michelle Coleman next home in 54.49.

Double Gold For Martinenghi

Nicolo Martinenghi: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

World champion Nicolo Martinenghi won the men’s 100m breaststroke in 1:00.06 ahead of Andrius Sidlauskas (1:00.53) and Ippei Watanabe (1:00.69).

Martinenghi also won the 50 breaststroke in 27.02.

Tomoyuki Matsushita added the 400IM to the short medley he won on day one in 4:12.53 and Benedek Kovacs led from start to finish to win the 200 back in 1:58.45 despite a final-50 29.38 from So Ogata that saw him eat into the deficit in 1:58.71.

Agostina Hein won the women’s 400 free in 4:09.94, Lilou Ressencourt took the 200 fly in 2:09.65 and Ingrid Wilm was the only woman inside the minute mark in the 100 back in 59.83.

Lisa Angiolini won the 200m breaststroke in 2:26.07 with Anastasia Gorbenko taking the 200IM in 2:09.28.

In other skins events, Miroslav Knedla took the men’s 50 back in 24.75.

Now the three-stop tour has finished in Monaco, swimmers will finalise their preparations for the World Championships in Fukuoka which for some will include the Sette Colli meet in Rome next month.

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Lee Lunday

10 months ago

That time is awesome Sarah…..when you break 24….you are above and beyond AWESOME…!

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