Silver In Men’s Medley Caps Off Historic Worlds for Dutch Team

2024 WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

Coming into the meet, the Dutch record in the men’s 4×100 medley relay stood at 3:33.46, courtesy of Nick Driebergen, Lennart Stekelenburg, Joeri Verlinden, and Sebastiaan Verschuren‘s performance from the 2012 Olympics.

But on the final day of the Doha World Championships, the team of Kai van Westering, Arno Kamminga, Nyls Korstanje, and Stan Pijnenburg beat that record not once, but twice. They first erased the mark in prelims, bettering it by .57 seconds and qualifying for the final in 3:32.89.

Swimming in lane 5 next to the United States, it looked through the middle part of the race that the Dutch might be able to challenge for the gold. But they weren’t able to close the seven-tenths gap to the Americans as Kamminga and Fink, then Korstanje and Harting had nearly identical splits.

The Dutch squad earned silver, obliterating the record they’d set hours ago with a 3:31.23, 1.66 seconds faster than their prelims swim. It’s a huge moment for the Dutch men, who haven’t even fielded a medley relay at the last two editions of Worlds. The last time they did, in 2019, Korstanje swam backstroke (56.11).

Now, they’ve got enough depth across the four strokes that they can put together a cohesive squad. And over the course of the day, they showed themselves as a squad that can make the final then take it one step further and medal.

They’ve still got to drop a few second to compete in a full field. For example, their time here would’ve been 6th at 2023 Worlds. But both their prelims and finals times would’ve gotten them into that final–a huge accomplishment for a country that hasn’t fielded a team in this over the last quad at the Worlds/Olympics level.

The relay’s silver caps off a historic performance for the Netherlands. It was their sixth medal of the meet. They ended up earning three golds and three silvers, which put them third overall on the final medal table. That’s a huge outing for the Dutch team. It’s the highest they’ve ever finished on a World Championships medal table, bettering the 4th place outing at the 2001 championships. Over the interim 11 championships, they’ve averaged about a 13th place finish.

Their three gold medals also matches their 2001 Worlds total for the most golds by a Dutch team at a World Championships and snaps a 10-year drought.

We already talked about Marrit Steenbergen‘s and Tes Schouten‘s rise a few days ago, but Caspar Corbeau got in on the action as well with a silver in the men’s 200 breaststroke, his first World Championship medal. It was a full team effort, as both the men’s and women’s squad contributed to the final tally. They set the tone early with a win in the women’s 4×100 freestyle on Day 1 of the meet and just continued to excel.

The Netherlands’ Medal History at the World Championships:

Quick Hits

• Daniel Wiffen led an all European podium in the men’s 1500 freestyle with a dominant performance. By the 100-meter mark, Wiffen had taken the lead of the race. He didn’t look back, extending the lead to over 10 seconds as he flirted with the world and championship record lines. He fell off both those records’ pace but held on for a new personal best of 14:34.07 which moves him to #5 all-time performer and second-fastest European ever. It’s Wiffen’s second gold of the meet and Ireland’s second swimming gold at a non-para Worlds in history. Florian Wellbrock qualified for Paris and won a tight race for second ahead of David Aubry, 14:44.61 to 14:44.85.
• Sarah Sjöström won her third consecutive (and fourth career) women’s 50 freestyle title. She posted 23.69 to claim gold, just .08 seconds off the world record she swam in Fukuoka. She ties 2017 Worlds performance for fourth-fastest performance in history and now owns the top five swims.
• Behind Sjöström, Kasia Wasick earned bronze in 23.95, breaking her Polish record from semifinals and getting under the 24 second barrier for the first time in her career. “It is huge,” said Wasick, who was emotional in the post-race interview about achieving this career goal.
• Max Litchfield won 400 IM silver in his first time officially representing Team GB on the international stage. In the final individual event of the meet, Freya Colbert added a second gold for Great Britain at this meet, getting the better of Anastasia Gorbenko at the wall. Both of Great Britain’s golds this week have come from their women as Laura Stephens won the 200 butterfly earlier.
• Ruta Meilutyte won her third-straight 50 breaststroke world championship. She’s the world record holder and her 29.40 performance ties the fifth-fastest performance all-time. “I’m proud of how far I have come and the journey I have been a part of,” she told the media post race. Her gold medal for Lithuania marked the 18th country that had won gold at these Worlds.

Other Continental and National Records

• Multiple 4×100 medley relay teams took down their national records in the event. Slovenia’s quartet of Janja Šegel, Tara Vovk, Hana Sekuti, and Neža Klančar broke their national record in the women’s 4×100 medley relay. They swam 4:07.47 in the heats, bettering the old record of 4:08.51 from 2022 Worlds. Only Sekuti was not a part of the squad that set that mark in Budapest.
• Both Portugal’s men’s and women’s teams swam national records in the 4×100 medley relay. The men actually tied their performance from Fukuoka with Gabriel Lopes, Francisco Robalo, Diogo Matos Ribeiro, and Miguel Nascimento swimming 3:35.63. Their women’s team of Camila Robelo, Ana Rodrigues, Mariana Cunha, and Francisca Martins took nearly two seconds off their national record with a 4:05.26.
• Velimir Stjepanović, Uroš Zivanovic, Durde Matic, and Andrej Barna set a new Serbian men’s 4×100 medley relay record. The quartet logged 3:37.98, breaking the old record of 3:38.44 that had stood since the 2018 Mediterranean Games.

European Medal Table Thru Day 8