While competing at the FFN Golden Tour in Marseilles, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu broke her European record in the women’s 400-meter IM.
Hosszu hit the wall in a sizzling time of 4:29.89. That swim broke her own continental mark of 4:30.31 set at the 2009 World Championships.
She split the race 28.54, 1:01.19 (32.65), 1:35.61 (34.42), 2:10.35 (34.74), 2:48.50 (38.15), 3:28.35 (39.85), 3:59.41 (31.06), 4:29.89 (30.48).
The swim ties her with Kirsty Coventry for the third-fastest swim in history behind Ye Shiwen (4:28.43) and Stephanie Rice (4:29.45). Coventry clocked her 4:29.89 at the 2008 Olympics alongside Rice, while Ye did hers at the 2012 Olympics.
Hosszu breaking 4:30 in-season is a remarkable feat. She held the previous in-season record with a U.S. Open record 4:31.07 at the Santa Clara Grand Prix last year.
Hosszu definitely decided to eschew her Iron Lady moniker today to focus on the swim, deciding not to swim in any other events during the first day of sprints and distance events. She’s swam all of the races in the past before, but changed it up today.
Fantine Lesaffre placed second today in 4:38.88 with Mireia Belmonte Garcia taking third in 4:39.55.
Belmonte Garcia won the 800-meter free in 8:29.70, while Damien Joly posted a meet record 14:58.18 to win the men’s 1500-meter free and move to the top of the world rankings as the only sub 15:00 of the year so far.
David Verraszto moved to second in the world in the men’s 400-meter IM with a 4:12.63. That’s only behind Kosuke Hagino’s 4:09.06 from Tokyo earlier this year.
Anastasia Fesikova won the women’s 50-meter back in 28.16, just off her fifth-ranked season best of 28.10 from the Amiens stop. Camille Lacourt, meanwhile, claimed the men’s 50-meter back in 25.20. He has the top-ranked swim in the world this year with a 24.67 from Amiens as well.
Martina Carraro topped the women’s 50-meter breast in 31.13, moving up from fifth in the world with a 31.23 to fourth ahead of Jennie Johansson (31.16). Giacomo Perez Dortona won the men’s 50-meter breast in 27.62 to move to third in the world rankings.
Sarah Sjostrom blazed her way to a top-ranked 25.18 in the women’s 50-meter fly, ahead of now second-ranked Fran Halsall’s 25.60 in what proved to be a swift finale. Mehdy Metella took the men’s 50-meter fly title ahead of Steffen Deibler (23.98).
Congrats, Katinka – Gold in Rio 🙂
She is just amazing
Pretty cool first name too ?