2026 DUTCH QUALIFIERS
Day two of the 2026 Dutch Qualifiers unfolded in Rotterdam today, with the nation’s swimmers vying for potential roster spots for this year’s Short Course World Championships in Beijing in December.
21-year-old Milou van Wijk made her presence known across multiple events, first taking the women’s 100m free, followed by gold in the 50m back.
In the former event, van Wijk stopped the clock at 51.72, representing the only competitor to break the 53-second barrier.
Van Wijk split 11.81/24.64/38.15/51.72 to easily dip beneath the Royal Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB)-mandated qualification time of 53.02 needed to qualify for SC Worlds.
Imani de Jong was next to the wall in 53.03, a painstakingly .01 outside the QT for silver, as Valerie Van Roon rounded out the podium a hair later in 53.05.
Following up on his 200m back national record from night one, 23-year-old Kai van Westering settled for silver in the men’s 100m back in a time of 59.97.
That fell short of the 50.81 QT for SC Worlds, whereas Noah Verreth of Belgium hit 50.25 as the gold medalist.
Giovanni Phillipson captured a new Dutch Youth Record of 52.37 en route to grabbing the bronze medal.
Additional Notes
- Marte Heike van der Kamp won the women’s 1500m free in a time of 16:07.28 for a new meet record, although her effort fell outside the 16:03.59 benchmark needed for Beijing.
- The men’s 200m free saw Merlin Belmon get to the wall first in 1:43.63, just a fraction of a second outside the QT of 1:43.48 needed for the 2026 SC World Championships.
