National team manager, Petter Løvberg, is pleased with several of the results in this year’s EC short course in Kazan, Russia. The championship was held November 2-7.
When the three medal candidates did not receive medals for various reasons, it was other athletes who showed up. By far the strongest performance was Tomoe Zenimoto Hvas’ semifinal on the opening day of the championship. There he broke both Norwegian and Nordic record in the 100m butterfly with the strong time of 49.22. In other words, it was a dream opening on the first day of the championship. Despite this, Tomoe woke up sick the next morning and unfortunately did not get to swim more races in the European Championships. Health takes precedence over performance, and Tomoe is of course coming back stronger. We want to see him fresh and ready for the World Cup in 6 weeks.
Løvberg said that there were still many exciting athletes going on and several personal records. Even though Tomoe was out of the championship, we still swam in 8 finals and 16 semifinals. Only two swimmers did not swim in final sequences, and 8 of the swimmers set personal records in one or more exercises.
It was also good to see that the two oldest swimmers, who are both 28 years old, “pressed” solidly (Stina Kajsa Colleou and Christoffer Tofte Haarsaker). Jenny Halden, who was selected as a team swimmer on the mix team, proved worthy of trust and was involved in swimming the team to a 6th place with a strong stage time of 24.99 in the 50m butterfly.
Now the focus is on the World Cup short course in Abu Dhabi, 16-21. December. Most of the national team swimmers who do not join the WC concentrate on the Nordic Championships, 3-5. December in Sweden.
Short summary of the EC short course:
- 2 Nordic records (Tomoe Z. Hvas -100m butterfly 49.22 – Nicholas Lia – 50m butterfly at 22.56)
- 5 Norwegian records (Tomoe Z. Hvas- 50m butterfly at 22.79 and 100m butterfly at 49.22, Nicholas Lia – 50m butterfly (x 2) at 22.56, Stina Kajsa Colleou – 200m at breast 2.22.10)
- 8 finals, 16 semifinals
