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Speedo British Grand Prix

Mar 26, 2001  - Anita Lonsbrough

Pieter van den Hoogenband the double Olympic gold medallist, made an impressive start to his 2001 season with a 1min 47.54sec swim in the 200m freestyle at the Speedo British Grand Prix in Glasgow, Great Britain.

The twenty-three old flying Dutchman had no serious opposition. He led from the start turning in 52.01sec before powering home for a time of 1min 47.54. over six seconds ahead of British international Edward Sinclair.

Hoogenband's winning mark is only just over two second shy of his world mark which he established when winning gold in Sydney. This clearly underlines the Dutch aces form is right on course for another show down with Australia's wonder kid Ian Thorpe at the World Championships in Japan during the month of July.

Hoogenband's Glasgow swim was his first competitive appearance since Sydney, and he was somewhat "surprised" with his time. He added, "It was better than I expected". After Sydney he took nearly four months out of the water and enjoyed being feted as an Olympic champion and partied with friends and relations.

The world record holder started his 2001 preparation with a three week training camp in South Africa with the newly formed Dutch Philips Swim squad. Philips sponsor the top four Dutch swimmers. The quartet train together under the guidance of Jacco Verhaeren. The four are Hoogenband, Inge de Bruijn (when in the Netherlands), Joris Keizer and Klaas Eric Zwering.