Swimming

Lucas Henveaux Goes 1:47.3/3:47.1/7:53.4 Free at 2024 Belgian Open, Sarah Dumont Goes 5-for-5

April 24, 2024

2024 Belgian Open

April 19-21, 2024
Antwerpen, Belgium
LCM (50m)
Meet Site
Meet Results

Over the weekend in Antwerpen, the 2024 Belgian Open Championships took place. Belgium’s Lucas Henveaux swept three middle distance free events, with the latter two events under the Olympic “B” consideration times. Fellow Belgian Sarah Dumont was the big winner on the women’s side, taking five event wins over the weekend. On the men’s side, fellow Belgian Sebastien de Meulemeester also won three events.

Triple-event winner Lucas Henveaux took top times in the 200 free (1:47.31), 400 free (3:47.14), and 800 free (7:53.47). While no personal bests were set, Henveaux was the only swimmer in Antwerpen to go under any Olympic consideration times. Over the weekend, Henveaxu’s 400 and 800 times were just under the 3:47.91 and 7:54.01 respective marks for the Olympic “B” times. Henveaux already has swum an automatic Olympic “A” qualification this year in the 400 free, hitting 3:44.61 at the February World Championships to place fifth in the final. In the 200 free, Henveaux took a dominant win over runner-up Sebastien de Meulemeester (1:50.04).

Amping things up into the men’s sprint free events, de Meulemeester went two-for-two in the 50 free (22.56) and 100 free (49.48). Taking double silver in both events was Thomas Thijs, swimming 22.79 and 50.24 respectively. The 100 fly also went to de Meulemeester with his top time of 52.95.

On the women’s side, Sarah Dumont began her five-gold medal pick-up with the 100 fly win at 59.87. Taking second place at 1:00.93 was Pauline Zeller at 1:00.93, just over her prelims personal best of 1:00.30. Dumont also stormed the 200 fly at 2:10.89, over six seconds ahead of Zeller (2:17.82), another personal best.

Zeller set three butterfly personal bests in total throughout the weekend. Along with her double 100/200 fly runner-up finishes, Zeller won the 50 fly with a three-tenths personal best of 27.25, dropping from her 27.59 PB from January. Rachel Rinchon was also spotted in the three butterfly races. She placed second in the 50 fly (28.22) as well as taking double bronze in the 100 fly (1:02.50) and 200 fly (2:21.58).

Sarah Dumont also won the 200 free at 2:00.02, over a second ahead of Camille Henveaux (2:01.36). Along with winning the 400 IM (4:46.58), Dumont had her fifth win in the 400 free, winning at 4:13.26. Henveaux took another silver at 4:15.46 while Lucie Hanquet earned bronze at 4:23.65.

More Highlights

Lithuania’s Andrius Sidlauskas was spotted in the men’s 100 breast, topping the final at 1:00.02. At the Doha World Champs in February, Sidlauskas tied the Olympic consideration time of 59.79. Winning the 50 breast was Charles Grondel at 28.22, two-tenths over his prelims effort of 28.02. Grondel was also runner-up to Sidlauskas in the 100 breast at 1:01.60.
In the women’s 1500 free, Alisee Pisane won the event at 16:32.86 by 5.73s ahead of Lucie Hanquet (16:38.59). Later on the next day, Hanquet got revenge in the 800 free with a win at 8:47.84, a mere 0.25s ahead of runner-up Pisane (8:48.09). Steering in another meager 0.39s behind Pisane for bronze was Camille Henveaux at 8:48.48.
Another double-event winner on the men’s side was Stan Franckx, taking both the 50 back (25.20) and 100 back (55.09).
Other women’s multi-winners include Fleur Verdonck, taking the 50 back (29.21) and 100 back (1:04.28), and Florine Gaspard, sweeping the 50 breast (30.72), 100 breast (1:08.62), and swimming her second sub-25 career swim in the 50 free at 24.95.