Sean Niewold & Noah Verreth Down National Records At Dutch Qualifiers
Sean Niewold and Noah Verreth stamped Dutch and Belgian records as Beijing tickets were booked on the third day of the Dutch Qualifiers in Rotterdam.
Niewold was already assured of selection to the short-course worlds in the Chinese capital in December thanks to performances on the recent World Cup tour.
On Saturday, he finished 11th in prelims, clocking 48.66 to miss out on the 10-man final by one place and 0.06. The double European relay silver medallist returned in the evening for the B final where he sped to 46.36 to cut 0.02 off Stan Pijnenburg’s national record of 46.38 that had stood since the 2021 short-course Europeans in Kazan, Russia.
Brendan van den Berg headed the A final although his 47.17 winning time was outside the cut.
Verreth stamped his second Belgian record in as many days, following up his 100 back (50.23) with a 23.29 prelims blast in the 50, a time he replicated in the final. That slices 0.13 from his 23.42 standard from November last year.
Kai van Westering set Dutch 100 and 200 back records during the opening two days. He was the first Dutchman home in the 50 although his 23.98 was 0.61 outside the cut.
More championship records tumbled thanks to Tatjana Smith, Tessa Giele and Eszter Szabo-Feltothy.
On Friday, Smith was just 0.03 off her African 100 breaststroke record in 1:03.92 as she continues her return from retirement. She was back in the water on Saturday for the 200 prelims where she went 2:21.26 for another CR before returning in the evening to lower it to 2:19.96. That elevates the South African into the top 10 for 2026.
Rafaela Mulders was the first Dutchwoman home although 2:27.26 was outside the cut thereby rubber-stamping Tes Schouten’s trip to Beijing after she swam the QT on the World Cup tour.
Giele was well inside the 100IM cut in 59.01 as she adds a second swim to her programme on top of the 50 back.
Szabo-Feltothy dominated the 400IM with the Hungarian coming home in 4:36.66, 6.69secs ahead of Marte Hieke van der Kamp who was the first Dutchwoman home in 4:43.35.
Imani de Jong added the 200 free to her 400 title in 1:53.81, well inside the cut for Beijing.
Ivo Kroes won the men’s 200m breaststroke (2:06.50) with Tiago Fonseca Gomes taking the men’s 200 fly (1:57.89).