Jani Sievinen finally lost his age-old record: “Let’s hope that the rest will be broken too”

Ezzat broke the sub-two minute ghost mark when he swam the 200 meters in 2:00.32. He beat the old record by 38 hundredths of a second.

Grabbing the record was a tough feat considering that its previous holder is an Olympic medalist and multiple honors race winner Jani Sievinen. His record was valid for no less than 30 years.

The swimming legend was not upset about losing his record.

“It’s a great thing that the record was broken,” he beamed.

Sievinen said that he does not know Ezzati personally, but he has become familiar as a name based on the results.

“He has swam hard times before. He has been a promising young swimmer for a long time.”

Ezzat has been in a good mood this year. In March, he broke the Finnish record for the 100-meter backstroke.

At the European Championships, he was part of the men’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle swimming team, which also broke the Finnish record. They were also in the team Tomas Koski, Ronny Brännkärr and Lukas Vainio. Sievinen was part of the previous record team.

Sievinen, who won EC gold five times in long courses, praised the young Finn’s swimming. According to him, breaking the two-minute mark in the 200-meter backstroke bodes well.

“When a swimmer gets to two minutes in the backstroke, he has a good chance to one day swim 1.56 or less. I think the chances of such an improvement are lower in freestyle,” Sievinen said.

“It may be that not breaking the record is a good thing. That leaves a little motivation to break the phantom line.”

of the European Championships the level has been tough. Despite the Finnish record, Ezzat’s result was not enough for the semi-finals.

Sievinen has also quoted a tough level. He emphasizes that the fastest time in the preliminaries alone would have been enough for almost a medal in the Olympics.

Russian and Belarusian swimmers will be participating in the European Championships in Paris. They were not seen at the last European Championships, which, according to Sievinen, contributed to the poor level of the Games.

“The level of the best swimmers has remained the same, but in general the level has risen to the level before the corona. The Finns have done very well compared to their own level of results.”

Sievinen only holds two Finnish records on long courses. According to him, hopefully there will be fewer of them in the near future.

“Let’s hope the rest will break as well.”

There are 24 swimmers in the Finnish team. Malla Hämäläinen set a Finnish record in the 800 meter freestyle with 8:41.02. Aliisa Soini on the other hand, broke the Finnish record in the 50-meter butterfly with a time of 26.24. The races last until Sunday.