swimming
The Belgian relay team in the women’s 4×200 meter freestyle was unable to qualify for the final of the relay at the world swimming championships in the Qatari capital Doha. They thus miss the last chance for an Olympic ticket.
In the second and final series, the Belgians Valentine Dumont, Camille Henveaux, Lucie Hanquet and Lotte Vanhauwaert finished in seventh and third-last place in 8:06.56. In total, they did not get further than fifteenth place, only the top eight get the right to start in the final on Thursday evening. This required at least a time of 7:58.63. China starts in the final with the fastest time (7:54.38) on the tables.
The Belgians also missed out on qualifying for next summer’s Olympic Games in the French capital Paris. Before that, the top three of last year’s World Cup in Fukuoka had already qualified. A joint ranking of both World Cups was drawn up for the other thirteen places. With a seventeenth place last year in Japan and a fifteenth place in Doha, the Belgians only finished in nineteenth place in that ranking.
The Belgian women needed a small miracle to grab that Olympic ticket after Fleur Verdonck, the second fastest Belgian woman in the 200 meter freestyle, withdrew from the World Cup for health reasons. Roos Vanotterdijk, on paper the best alternative, was not yet ready to swim 200 meters at top level after a long rest period. The count remains at four Belgian swimmers in Paris: Valentine Dumont, Lucas Henveaux, Roos Vanotterdijk and Florine Gaspard.
