All eyes the first day of the Dutch Nationals at Eindhoven were focused on Inge de Bruijn who swam her first meet after her so succesfull Olympics. The worldrecordholder swam 25.35 this morning at the prelims. At the finals she swam even faster, 25.18 was her time, a 4th place at the world rankings.

Johan Kenkhuis won the same distance at the men, but his time 22.77 was just above the required 22.72 for Fukuoka. Pieter van den Hoogenband didn't swim at this 50 meter, he prefered the longer 400. He started fast (splits 53.83, 1:52.77, 2:51.45, 3:49.04), the first 200 were faster than his personal best time from Toulouse April 2000, but the lack of competitors restrained him from finishing that schedule.

Carla Geurts won the 400 freestyle at the women, after splitting 1:00.70, 2:04.67 and 3:09.44 she swam to 4:13.86. The number 7 from the world at Sydney didn't have competition either, after Kirsten Vlieghuis quitted swimming long distances and will only compete at the 200.

The breaststroke is after the retirement of Marcel Wouda, for the next generation swimmers. Benno Kuipers who's just back from an injury, finished first (1:04.13, prelims 1:03.99) just before the much younger Thijs van Valkengoed (1:04.15) who will try to win a medal at the upcoming European Youth Championships at Malta, after placing 4th last year in Dunkerque at this distance (he did won the 200 breaststroke there though). Madelon Baans who swam breaststroke at the Olympic medley relay, will do so at Fukuoka after winning this event in 1:10.87, for the 7th time the last 10 years.

After many years the Netherlands has a few good backstroke swimmers again. The first 50 meter Sander Gansevles, winner of the bronze medal last year at Dunkerque, was leading, but the second part Philips-swimstar Klaas-Erik Zwering passed him, finishing in 57.03 (57.22 for Sander). Hinkelien Schreuder swam to fabulous 1:03.50 (prelims 1:03.45), her prelim time is the second fastest time ever swum by a female Dutch swimmer. She'll probably swim this stroke at the medley relay at Fukuoka.

Nick van der Zandt and Georgios Dimitras fought a battle out at the 200 IM. Van der Zandt lead after the butterfly and the backstroke, but Dimitras, swimming for the professional Philips team, made an impressive come-back at the breatstroke and swam away at the last freestyle. Dimitras finished in 2:06.06 (splits 27.41, 1:01.46 and 1:37.46), 2 seconds ahead of Van der Zandt (27.00, 1:00.36, 1:37.28 and 2:08.18). 17 year old Hinkelien Schreuder got her second national title at this 200 IM, she swam a terrific 2:17.62, only one second above the time cut for Fukuoka.