Belgian athlete Jolien Vermeylen yesterday swam a 9:13.88 800m freestyle at the Flemish Swimming Championships in Antwerp. Held over long course (50m), Vermeylen swam an evenly split race, taking out the first half in a 4:34.51 and bringing home the second half in a 4:39.37.
Her performance was enough to take the win by over 1.5 seconds.
For good measure, she also added a speedy 1:14 breaststroke split in her team’s 4×100 medley relay. It is worth noting that Vermeylen dropped that split about 15 minutes after her 800m.
Vermeylen’s long course 800m personal best remains 8:57.71. For a more recent point of comparison, she swam a 9:12.63 in the 800m in February 2022.
As a teenager, Vermeylen was an elite swimmer, with exceptional personal bests in freestyle, breaststroke and individual medley events. With short course (25m) personal bests of 26.39, 56.94 and 2:01.93 in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyles, she has more speed in the pool than a number of the elite men’s WTCS field.
Her best event, though, may actually have been the 200m breaststroke, as evidenced by a short course personal best of 2:25.31 from 2015.
Vermeylen made her first international appearance in triathlon in 2017. After one race that year, she became more active on the international stage in 2018 and made her WTCS debut in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
Last year Vermeylen recorded her best ever triathlon result when she won the silver medal at the Bergen World Cup. Alongside that, she finished 7th at the Pontevedra World Cup.
While she has been developing on the individual front, Vermeylen has also become an important component of the Belgian Mixed Team Relay.
With Valerie Barthelemy and Claire Michel for company on the women’s side and the likes of Jelle Geens, Marten Van Riel and Noah Servais to choose from on the men’s side, Vermeylen is a part of a strong Belgian cohort that will likely have high hopes at the Paris Olympic Games.
Vermeylen is scheduled to race at the upcoming WTCS season opener in Abu Dhabi. Judging by her recent results, her swim looks to be in fine form.
