Arno Kamminga A Dutchman Bent On Bursting Dam Of 58s Building On Breaststroke; & Toussaint Takes Two Euro Marks In A Day

2021-04-10 Reading Time: 3 minutes
Arno Kamminga - by Patrick B. Kraemer
Arno Kamminga - by Patrick B. Kraemer

If anyone can burst the dam of 58sec swims collecting behind the wall of speed built by Adam Peaty these past few years, perhaps Dutchman Arno Kamminga is the man to do it.

It didn’t happen today, a 58.64 win in the final of the 100m breaststroke at the Eindhoven Qualification Meet following a 58.68 in heats. But if you were to wager on the next among the best of the rest of the breaststroke world to spill below 58 into 57sec waters charted only by Peaty (best leave his 56.88 and the conquering of Project 57 out of the equation for now), Arno Kamminga would be among the candidates.

In Eindhoven he finished ahead of Fabian Schwingenschlögl, of Germany, on 59.30 after 59.22 in heats as the world practices yet again for morning Olympic finals dictated by a broadcaster and Olympic bosses in the face of clear research into circadian rhythms that those holding the purse strings haven’t given the welfare off athletes nearly as much thought as they ought to have. Third place went to Germany’s Melvin Imoudu, racing for Potsdamer SV, on 1:00.29

Kira Toussaint Takes Down European Record Twice On The Day

Kira Toussaint, on 27.18 for the European record in heats of the 50m backstroke, moved the standard on to 27.10 in the final ahead of Maaike de Waard’s 27.85, third to Laura Riedemann, of Halle in Germany, on 28.07. The details are in the heats file.

The Challenge Of Arno Kamminga On His Rise Up The Ranks

Kamminga, who now has the best 48 100m times ever by a Dutchman in textile suit (and 23 best ahead of the 2009 shiny suits 59.5 of Lennart Stekelenburg),

In Covid-torn 2020, Olympic and triple World champion and record holder Adam Peaty topped the World rankings for a seventh straight year, on 58.13, from March on the cusp of lockdown and well shy of a rested, peak performance. Kamminga was next, on his national record of 58.43 from the same month in Belgium.

Arno Kamminga

Kamminga also put in efforts of 58.52 in heats at the same March meet in Antwerp, after 58.61 in Beijing in January (58.95 in heats) and then, at the end of the year, a 58.69 at the Rotterdam Qualification Meet in December after a 58.78 in heats. In the first summer of the pandemic, he also clocked a 59.33.

Into 2021 and until today, Peaty’s 58.82 and 58.87 efforts at the Manchester International topped the early rankings, Kamminga’s 59.09 (59.20 in heats) from the Golden Tour in Marseille, a 59.17 (59.51 in heats) at the Flanders Qualification Meet and efforts of 59.21 (59.36 in heats) at the Geneva International in January,

All that when most of the world’s pools were shut. Seven 58s, seven 59s in the past two years going into the final this evening in Eindhoven. So, no shortage of race practice, nor experience of the 58sec zone. It is a matter of time before a 57 comes rolling from the Dutchman, perhaps.

The Wouda Way

Way out in front in the 400m medley final, Arjan Knipping clocked 4:17.91. Knipping, 27 this year, is the man whoin heats at the 2019 World Championships, on 4:13.46, took down the 22-year-old Dutch record set by Marcel Wouda in 1997. Back then, Wouda’s 4:15.38 was good for European gold, while a 2:00.77 in the 200m medley produced a second continental title that year. With those triumphs, the Dutchman, who went on to be a senior coach and head coach of the successful national Open water program, also topped the World Rankings in both events that year, when Knipping turned 3.

One of two Olympic Marathon champions from The Netherlands, Sharon van Rouwendaal, who trains in France, was in action today, honing her finishing speed and endurance with a 4:09.70 at the helm of the eight-length freestyle final.

Van Rouwendaal owns the Dutch 400m record at 4:03.02. Fairly useful speed at the end of a Marathon for an athlete who came home 17sec ahead of next best after 10km covered in 1hr 56min 32.1sec off the Rio coast back in 2016.

Sharon Van Rouwendaal – main image with Rio gold – by Patrick B. Kraemer – and in her paddling pool in Covid season…

Van Rouwendaal is used to going the distance in pool, rivers, lake, sea and ocean. She trains 90km a week.

In the 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic season she was to be foundn her backyard on a rope pacing herself standing still in a paddling pool.

Containment measures the world over forced pools and swim programs to close down. Swimmers were confined to keeping fit with dryland exercise but Can Rouwendaal, used to covering 90km in training a week over 10 training sessions, didn’t want to lose the feel of the water.

In her new regime, Van Rouwendaal wore= a belt around her wetsuit and is attached to a rope tied to a pole that helps hold her position in the paddling pool: her Instagram page tells the tael in pictures…

In the 400m freestyle finals for men, Henning Muehlleitner, Neckarsulmer Sport-Union in Germany, clocked 3:47.44 for the win ahead of Luc Kroon, 3:53.83, and Silas Beth, 3:54.90.

Share this post