Marrit Steenbergen Repeats Golden Feat at Giant Open; John Shortt Rewrites Irish Record Books
Marrit Steenbergen repeated her opening-day golden double as she clinched the freestyle treble at the Giant Open in Paris.
John Shortt continued his record-breaking form in the 200m backstroke and Maxime Grousset picked up his third title of the meet.
Angharad Evans sustained her fine momentum with Angelina Köhler and Jack McMillan also delivering top performances with trials season looming across Europe.
Steenbergen won the 50 and 200 free on the opening day in the French capital. She was back in the water for two more races starting with a 27.62 blast for the 50 back title and a new PB ahead of Analia Pigree (27.80) and Maaike de Waard (27.87).
She returned for the 100 free, in which she’s the two-time world champion. Out in 25.68 and back in 27.25, Steenbergen posted 52.93 for a 1.19sec victory over fellow Dutchwoman Milou van Wijk (54.12) with Britain’s Freya Anderson third (54.39).
Shortt Breaks New Ground Once More; Evans On The March
Shortt ended 2025 with 28 Irish records, three world and European junior titles and a WJR en-route to gold at the European Short Course Championships.
John Shortt: Photo Courtesy: Swim Ireland
Make that 29 after the 19-year-old set about the record books once more in Paris in the 200m backstroke when he came through in the second half of the race to post 1:56.07 for the title. It saw him slice 0.12 from his previous national standard of 1:56.19 that propelled him to the world junior title last year in Otopeni, Romania.
Apostolos Siskos (1:56.79) and Olympic bronze medallist Apostolos Christou (1:57.08) made it a Greek 2-3.
Evans has enjoyed a sabre-rattling few days. She was 0.09 off her 100 breaststroke British record in 1:05.46 at last weekend’s Edinburgh International, a time she matched on Friday.
The Scot returned for the 200 where she posted 2:22.02, the second fastest of her career and 0.16 off her 2:21.86 PB from last year’s British Championships. It’s the seventh-fastest by a British woman with Evans third behind Molly Renshaw and Abbie Wood. It also elevated her to second in the 2026 rankings, 0.01 off Kate Douglass’ 2:22.01 at the Pro Swim Series in Westmont.
Ellie McCartney repeated her 100 silver in 2:24.51 with Zia Dupont third (2:28.56).
Grousset Makes It Three
Angelina Köhler: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Perottino / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Grousset posted 22.00 to add the 50 free title to his 50 fly and 100 free crowns. Nandor Nemeth (22.14) and Stergios Bilas (22.22) were next home.
Köhler rattled her German 50 fly record in 25.57, 0.07 off her 25.50 national standard as she came fourth at the 2025 worlds in Singapore.
Anna Ntountounaki (26.05) and Marie Wattel (26.31) joined her on the podium.
McMillan came from 0.54 down at the final turn to overhaul Roman Fuchs for victory in the 200 free. The Briton stopped the clock in 1:47.05 with Fuchs clocking 1:47.37 and 16-year-old Sauveur Cristofini third in 1:47.56.
- Melvin Imoudu was the only man to break the minute mark in the men’s 100m breaststroke. The German clocked 59.94. Adam Peaty was fourth in 1:00.79
- Keanna Macinnes won the 200 fly in 2:08.92
- Dimitrios Markos upgraded 400 silver to 800 free gold in 7:52.45
- Artemis Vasilaki clinched the 400/800 double with a 4:10.57 win in the shorter race
- Gabor Zombori won the men’s 400IM in 4:17.29