Jan David Schepers conquers Men’s 200m IM heats - German World Championships Selection Trial
Jan David Schepers of SG Essen has conquered the top qualification spot in the preliminary rounds of the Men’s 200m Individual Medley (IM) on the third day of the 2011 German World Championships Selection Trial.
The 20-year-old German swimmer won the qualifying rounds by just missing the German mark of 1:58.94 seconds, set by Yannick Lebherz at the 2009 Rome World Championships.
The championship is a selection trial for national swimmers, as the top two winners of each event will be provided with a chance to represent Germany at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships, this July.
David Schepers occupied the top qualification spot with a magnificent lead of 3.71 seconds, touching the wall in 1:59.03 minutes. He was the only swimmer to post a sub 2:00.00 minutes effort and was followed by Markus Deibler, who claimed the second fastest
qualification spot in a time of 2:02.74 minutes. Hamburger SC’s Deibler edged out Dimitri Colupaev of SSV Undine 08 Mainz, who secured the third fastest qualification spot into the finals, with a timing of 2:03.03 minutes.
Schepers was only 0.09 seconds away from improving the national record, while his timing was 4.97 seconds above the world record of 1:54.10 minutes, owned by American swimmer, Ryan Lochte. His qualification time was 3.85 seconds slower than the European
record of 1:55.18 minutes, held by Laszlo Cseh at the 2009 Rome World Championships.
Jan remained evident for the fastest qualification spot in the first lap, where he completed his butterfly swim in the fastest time of 25.39 seconds. He achieved a lead of almost two seconds in the next lap, finishing his back-stroke lap in 56.43 seconds,
as compared to Deibler’s 58.212 seconds effort. Schepers extended his lead to 3.45 seconds in the third lap, which was increased to 3.71 seconds in the fourth lap, where he clocked a terrific 1:59.03 minutes for the fastest spot.
These swimmers will face each other in the final of the 200m IM, where the top two podium finishers will be confirmed with their spots in the German team to Shanghai.
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