BORAS, Sweden, July 5. SWEDEN’s Sarah Sjostrom is moving into scary territory for anyone who looks to oppose her this year as she just smashed the 25-second barrier in the women’s 50-meter fly at Swedish Nationals.
Sjostrom raced her way to an unbelievable time of 24.43. That swim lopped half-a-second off Therese Alshammar’s world and Swedish record of 25.07 set at the 2009 World Championships in Rome. In sprint terms, that’s as amazing as Katie Ledecky cutting two seconds off distance world records in Texas last month.
Additionally, with a bit more of an apples-to-apples comparison, Sjostrom absolutely crushed her own textile best of 25.23 set this morning. That swim had eclipsed the 25.24 set by Jeanette Ottesen Gray at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona last summer. No one has even been close this year in the event, with Ottesen having led the world with a 25.27 at the Mare Nostrum Barcelona stop.
That’s more than a second drop in a day for Sjostrom as her previous personal best in the event had been a 25.52 from the Eindhoven Cup back in April. It’s just unreal how fast Sjostrom is getting in Boras.
For good measure, Sjostrom closed the night with a 55.73 butterfly split in the women’s 400-meter medley relay as her squad took second in 4:10.84.
Jennie Johansson smashed the field in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, coming within half-a-second of her eighth-ranked season best of 1:07.14 as well. Johansson topped the event tonight in Sweden with a 1:07.54, more than two seconds ahead of Vilma Ekstrom’s second-place time of 1:10.13. Jessica Eriksson finished third overall in 1:10.76 with Jessica Billquist also posting a 1:10 with a fourth-place 1:10.98.
Christoffer Carlsen touched out Oscar Ekstrom for the men’s 50-meter free title, 22.90 to 22.94. Ekstrom, however, did become the first Swedish junior to clear 23 seconds, beating the previous record of 23.00 set by Marcus Piehl back in 2004. Stefan Nystrand, the veteran of the bunch tonight, took third overall in 22.95. Alexander Nystrom just missed the podium with a fourth-place 22.96.
Axel Pettersson overtook Kristian Kron down the stretch in the men’s 200-meter backstroke for the 2:03.49 to 2:03.63 victory. Mattias Carlsson rounded out the top three in the event with a 2:04.12. Louise Hansson claimed the women’s 400-meter free in 4:20.50 with Laura Lajunen taking second in 4:21.83. Sofia Lindholm picked up third overall in 4:25.16.
Jesper Jonsson had a battle on his hands against Oscar Ekstrom, but wound up with the 54.34 to 54.40 win in the men’s 100-meter fly. Ekstrom took down his second junior record of the day, beating Erik Andersson’s 54.51 from 2003. Alexander Linge wound up third in 54.65.
Adam Paulsson blasted the field in the men’s 800-meter free with an 8:18.11, while Simon Plato (8:28.08) and Lukas Steiner (8:31.32) finished second and third.