Even before Saturday’s final session, Björn Seeliger had shown top form during the SM competitions in Valhallabadet in Gothenburg. During the team competition in the 4×50 meter medley yesterday, the national team swimmer struck with a Swedish record on the starting distance, 23.57 in the 50 meter backstroke. His club, Simklubben Neptun, then secured the SM gold with a full 2.5 second margin.
23-year-old Seeliger has earlier this week also taken part in and won team gold in the 4×200 meter freestyle and 4×50 meter freestyle. During the Saturday evening he continued to line up medals of the noblest denomination.
Swedish record and double individual gold
Seeliger, who is based in the US on weekdays where he trains and studies at the University of California (Cal) in Berkeley, San Francisco, started the evening with victory in the 50m freestyle in a time of 21.42. The winning time makes him third in the world this year for the short course distance. Only the French Florent Manaudou and Maxime Grousett have swum faster.
A few minutes after the triumph in the 50 free came the next top result. SM gold and Swedish record with 51.21 in 100 meter backstroke, fourth best time in the world this year. Seeliger won ahead of Samuel Törnqvist who was second with his 51.87, a personal record for the Spårvägen swimmer who recently set a Swedish record for the double distance and qualified for the EC.
For Björn Seeliger, the evening ended with another team race gold with Neptun, who won the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle.
Among the evening’s Swedish champions was also Victor Johansson, who won the 1500 meter freestyle by far. Earlier in the week, he took the gold in the 800 meters and is one of the early favorites for the distance ahead of the EC in Bucharest in December.