För en vecka sedan avslutades Swim Open Stockholm, en internationell tävling med många sim-eliter från hela världen.
Kvalificerade var 16 simmare från KbSS men då pandemin fortfranade hade sitt gerpp om Sverige när Swim Open planerades så hade vi dessvärre bara möjlighet att få med 7 representanter till Stockholm.
Nedan har Coach Jeff skrivit en reflektion om tävlingen och simmarnas prestationer.
Swim Open - Stockholm
From April 8th-13th six athletes, Hektor Kvarnöf, Gustaf Wänt, Alex Johansson, Alejandro Poller, Fredrik Ekholm and Lina Dahlgren, travelled from Kungsbacka to Stockholm to compete at what ended up being the fastest swim competition in the world in 2022. We were also joined by another Kungsbacka swimmer Erik Persson.
For all of these swimmers this competition was part of a process leading to their main competitions at the end of the summer. For this reason the goal of the competition was not to achieve lifetime best times, but to gain racing experience and implement techniques and strategies that they have been working on in practice while racing.
All of the swimmers represented our team in a fantastic manner, racing extremely well with tremendous effort. Erik won both the 100 and 200 breaststroke in times that ranked 8th and 2nd in the world. Lina D made the C final in both the 50 and 100 breaststroke, Hektor made the C final for the 50 freestyle while Gustaf Wänt made the C final in the 200 butterfly.
Finishing in the top 24 at this competition was a great accomplishment and stepping stone for these swimmers. All of the swimmers made great improvements in how they both approached and swam their races, which will lead to them to greater success in the future.
Although best times were not the main goal many of our swimmers did swim lifetime bests including:
Hektor in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle as well as the 50 and 100 backstroke
Alex in the 200 IM
Alejandro in the 50 butterfly and 100 freestyle
Gustaf in the 200 and 400 freestyle and 200 butterfly
Lina in the 50 and 100 breaststroke and 50 freestyle
Unfortunately Fredrik was not able to compete due to illness.
The team should be extremely proud of all of these swimmers competing so well at such a high level competition.