Women's 100m Freestyle Living Up To It's Blue Riband Billing

Photo courtesy of @aadvangroningen

Today in Eindhoven Ranomi Kromowidjojo vaulted herself back to the top of the list of favourites in the women's 100m Freestyle. Having seen Sarah Sjostrom move past the rest of the world at the end of last year, Kromowidjojo broke out with a stunning 52.75 effort. 



This time not only breaks Sjostrom's previous textile best mark of 53.05 from November, but also clears Libby Trickett's time of 52.99 set in a mixed relay back in 2007 (in a lane next to Michael Phelps).

To highlight the depth of this event, here is a list of swimmers with a legitimate medal chance (and their best time in textile). I've put them into the tiers I see them currently:

Tier 1

Ranomi Kromowidjojo - 52.75
Sarah Sjostrom - 53.05

Tier 2

Fran Halsall - 53.48
Missy Franklin - 53.63
Aleksandra Herasimenia - 53.45
Jeanette Ottesen - 53.45
Femke Heemskerk - 53.60*

Tier 3

Britta Steffen - 53.30
Natalie Coughlin - 53.40
Yi Tang - 53.71
Mel Schlanger - 53.74
Cate Campbell - 53.84
Dana Vollmer - 53.94

There will not be many (if any) events at the Olympics with a deeper final field than the women's 100m Freestyle.

* Heemskerk didn't compete in Eindhoven today, with Marleen Veldhuis swimming 53.95 today she may not have qualified for the individual 100m Free.

Breaking News: Aleksandra Herasimenia Denies Elbowing Alicia Coutts

There has been a lot of speculation surrounding 'Elbow Gate', the allegations from Alicia Coutts that she was elbowed in the head and spat at before the 100m Freestyle final at the World Championships in Shanghai. 

Coutts still has not revealed the name of the alleged culprit, but did say that it was one of the European finalists in the race. Since the story broke last week we have seen Ranomi Kromowidjojo cleared by Coutts herself on Twitter as well as a denial from Femke Heemskerk. Fran Halsall saw the incident, heard the apology and forgot who was involved describing the incident as 'a non entity'.

In a Speed Endurance exclusive we can now add another denial to that list. Joint gold medal winner Aleksandra Herasimenia.

I caught up with Herasimenia and in a strongly worded denial she told me that the allegations were 'stupid' and questioned the authenticity of the claims. 'I know that I did not do it, and Jeanette (Ottesen) too, I spoke to her. Nor could she do that!', she said. 'I did not see anything and so I think all this is fiction!'