Kai van Westering & Koen de Groot Go Into The Record Books At Dutch Championships
Kai van Westering downed the Dutch 100 back record that had stood since London 2012 and Koen de Groot set a 50m breaststroke mark on day one of the Dutch Long-Course Championships in Amersfoort.
Van Westering went 53.51 in the 100 back prelims to slice 0.11 from the previous standard of 53.62 held by Nick Driebergen since 29 July 2012 in the Olympic prelims almost 13 years ago.
It was a PB by 0.29 for Van Westering whose previous best was 53.80 en-route to ninth in the semis at the 2024 worlds in Doha where he finished one place and 0.08 off the final.
Van Westering won gold in the 200 back and silver over 100 at the LEN U23 Championships in Dublin two years ago.
De Groot stopped the clock at 26.78 to shave 0.02 from Arno Kamminga’s standard of 26.80 at the Eindhoven Qualification Meet in April 2021.
Double Olympic silver medallist Kamminga – who’s previously said he has a love-hate relationship with the 50 – is not competing in Amersfoort but has instead moved his base to Hong Kong where he’ll train under Tom Rushton.
The meet runs from 12-15 June and represents the sole opportunity for swimmers to book a slot on the Netherlands team for the World Championships which start in Singapore on 27 July.