2026 DUTCH QUALIFIERS
The 2026 Dutch Qualifiers kicked off yesterday from Rotterdam, with the nation’s swimmers vying for potential slots on the roster for this year’s Short Course World Championships coming up in December in Beijing.
Already through just the first day of racing, we saw one national, one youth national and two meet records bite the dust, giving us a glimpse into what the remaining days of the competition may bring in terms of speed.
It was former Indiana University swimmer Kai van Westering who notched a Dutch national standard on his way to taking gold in the men’s 200m backstroke.
The 23-year-old stopped the clock at a swift lifetime best of 1:51.59 to get the job done, beating the pack by over three seconds en route to victory.
Splitting 26.25/54.66/1:23.28/1:51.59, van Westering’s performance overtook the longstanding national benchmark of 1:53.08 Nick Driebergen established at the 2010 Dutch Championships.
Entering this meet, van Westering’s lifetime best in this SCM 2back rested at the 1:54.85 he put up four years ago, so he hacked over three seconds off that prior PB with his outing here. Additionally, van Westering’s performance easily cleared the Royal Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB)-mandated qualification time of 1:52.11 needed to make the cut for SC Worlds.
Van Westering was the only competitor to accomplish the feat, as Noah Verreth fell short in 1:55.15 for silver and Raf Hendriks posted 1:57.03 as the bronze medalist.
Maaike de Waard reaped gold on two separate occasions to kick off her campaign, first topping the women’s 50m fly podium and then following up with the top spot in the 100m back.
In the former, de Waard nailed a new meet record of 24.93 to register the sole time of the field under the 25-second barrier. She led a trio of women who dipped under the 25.72 qualification time, with runner-up Kim Busch landing silver in 25.40 and Jinth Engelse rounding out the podium in 25.71.
18-year-old Engelse’s performance checked in as a new Dutch Youth Record, erasing her former PB of 26.08 just earlier this month.
The women’s 100m back saw 30-year-old de Waard turn in a time of 57.24 to take gold by over two seconds, qualifying for Beijing in this event as well.
Additional SC Worlds qualifiers on day one included Sean Niewold achieving the QT in the men’s 100m IM. Although he was the 2nd swimmer to the wall behind Canadian Javier Acevedo‘s time of 52.79, Niewold’s outing of 52.84 was under the selection standard of 52.98.
Imani de Jong also accomplished the feat in the women’s 400m free, with her meet record-setting result of 4:01.51 easily clearing the 4:06.27 QT needed.
