Iron, the last team to sneak into the 2021 International Swimming League playoffs, have confirmed a 31-swimmer roster for this month’s matchups in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Iron general manager Dorina Szekeres says that some of the team’s athletes will miss portions of the playoffs, but like the other teams whose rosters we’ve reported on so far, she wasn’t ready to publicly share information about who or which meets.
The Iron roster will include 16 men and 15 women, and their roster will look very similar to the one that they rode to an 8th-place finish in the regular season, including a second-place finish in the Death-Match to decide the last two teams into the Playoffs.
The only two changes are that Andrej Barna is listed on the team’s roster in the Playoff after not competing in the regular season, while Emre Sakci is not listed on the team’s playoff roster. Sakci had a breakthrough 2020 ISL season, which includes setting the ISL record in the 50 breast, but only competed sparingly during the 2021 season. At two early-season meets, he scored 12.5 and 12 points, respectively, but then missed the end of the regular season – including that Death Match.
Even with his presence, it would be a longshot for Iron to advance, though with him and 50 fly rei Nicholas Santos, plus sprint freestyler Thom de Boer, the team sets up very well to defend their position in late-meet Skins races.
If Barna, a Serbian who trains at the University of Louisville in the United States, does appear for the team, it will be his ISL debut.
His best short course meters times haven’t quite caught up yet to his long course meters times, which included a 47.94 that placed him 9th in the 100 free at last year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.
50m LCM
25m SCM
25y SCY
50m
22.14
21.68
19.15
100m
47.94
48.05
42.57
200m
1:49.47
1:47.05
1:34.37
400m
4:01.30
3:56.38
N/A
The team also still has Katinka Hosszu on their playoff roster. Hosszu was in attendance at most of the team’s regular season meets, but didn’t end up racing. Hosszu in her prime would have been a dominant ISL swimmer, maybe the dominant ISL swimmer, but she wasn’t that last season, and was short of her best again during the Tokyo Olympics. She hasn’t raced a meet since those Games, where her best finish was 5th place in the 400 IM.
The team didn’t immediately respond to an email asking about whether they expected Hosszu to race in the playoff.
Kristof Milak, who was signed by the team this season, is also absent from the team’s playoff roster after missing the whole regular season as well.
Iron is scheduled to begin their Playoff run in the first match, November 11-12, with the top two seeds Energy Standard and Cali Condors, as well as the #7 seed DC Trident. They are paired with the defending champion Cali Condors throughout the playoffs.
Other ISL Playoff Rosters:
Team Iron 2021 ISL Playoff Roster
WOMEN
MEN
Ranomi Kromowidjojo
Thom de Boer
Katinka Hosszú
Leonardo Santos
Melanie Henique
Nicholas Santos
Ida Hulkko
Guilherme Basseto
Maria Ugolkova
Marco Orsi
Veronika Andrusenko
Mikhail Vekovischev
Emilie Beckmann
Bernhard Reitshammer
Barbora Seemanova
Matt Richards
Ingeborg Vassbakk Loyning
Kirill Strelnikov
Jenna Strauch
Luiz Altamir Melo
Costanza Cocconcelli
Lorenzo Mora
Africa Zamorano Sanz
Erik Persson
Alys Thomas
Andrej Barna
Silvia Scalia
Robert Glinta
Casey Fanz
Maxim Lobanovszkij
Danielle Hill
Originally posted on SwimSwam.com. Click here to Read More.