BORAS, Sweden, July 4. SWEDEN’s Sarah Sjostrom has been on such a rise as of late, and she just did something that no one else has ever done before during finals of the Swedish Nationals. She clocked a sub-24 second 50-meter free in a textile suit.
Sjostrom sprinted her way to a sizzling time of 23.98 in the splash-and-dash. That performance took down the textile best of 24.05 posted by Ranomi Kromowidjojo two years running. First, she clocked the time at the 2012 London Games before posting it against at the 2013 Barcelona World Championships.
Sjostrom still has a bit of time to cut to challenge Britta Steffen’s world record of 23.73, or even Therese Alshammar’s Swedish record of 23.88, for that matter. But, to many in the sport of swimming, Sjostrom now stands as the fastest non-suit swimmer ever in the event.
Sjostrom is now just the sixth swimmer to break 24 seconds of any kind. Her time moves her to fifth in the all-time rankings behind Steffen, Alshammar, Marleen Veldhuis (23.98) and Libby Trickett (23.97). Cate Campbell is the only other sub-24 swimmer on record with a 23.99 from 2009 Worlds.
Notably, Michelle Coleman placed second tonight in 25.08 with Josefin Lindkvist hitting third in 25.55. Coleman later won the women’s 100-meter back in 1:01.34 for the meet record. That beat the 1:01.74 set by Sjostrom back in 2010, but was short of Coleman’s Swedish record of 1:00.58 from March. Ida Lindborg (1:02.24) and Therese Svendsen (1:03.36) took second and third.
In other action, Johannes Skagius downed the meet record in the men’s 50-meter breast with a 27.86. That lowered a 2008 mark of 27.93 set by Martin Gustavsson. Gulliver Koch (28.49) and Niklas Tour (28.96) took second and third.
Stina Gardell topped the women’s 400-meter IM finale with a 4:47.56. That’s well off her Swedish-record speed of 4:38.46 from just two years ago, and is five seconds back of her meet record of 4:42.20 from last year. Celine Bertrand touched second in 4:56.55 with Sofia Lindholm placing third in 4:57.22.
Christoffer Carlsen touched out Simon Sjodin, 26.17 to 26.18, for the men’s 50-meter back title. Alexander Nystrom placed third in 26.23. Gustav Aberg Lejdstrom edged Adam Paulsson, 3:56.80 to 3:56.99, for the men’s 400-meter free crown. Jesper Bjork finished third in 4:05.51.