2015 European Games Day 4 Finals Live Recap: GBR’s Luke Greenbank Nabs New World Junior Record in 200 Back

Inaugural European Games; Baku, Azerbaijan

• Tuesday June 23– Saturday June 27, 2015
• Baku Aquatic Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
• Prelims: 12:30 am EST; Finals: 8:30 am EST
• Meet Preview
• Start lists, timeline and results can be found here.
• Live Video

Event Program for Second Session on Friday, June 26, 2015

Women’s 50 Freestyle – SEMIFINAL

The top four women from this morning were all able to break the 25-second barrier, led by Russia’s Mariia Kameneva, whose 25.44 was the fastest of the field.  However, the Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen, this Games’ 100 freestyle gold medalist, is hot on her heels, clocking a swift 25.56 for the morning’s 2nd seed.  Denmark’s Julie Jensen was only .02 seconds behind in a time of 25.58, with Russia’s Vasilissa Buinaia in 4th in a time of 25.86. The women contest the final of this event later in this session.

Men’s 50 Backstroke – SEMIFINAL

Super close semifinals for the men’s 50 backstroke, which resulted in the top four seeds registering times within just two tenths of each other.  Russia led the field for the second event in a row, with Filipp Shopin clocking a 25.67 to position himself in the middle of the pool for the final later this session.  2nd seed is Germany’s Marek Ulrich in a time of 25.73, followed by Ukraine’s Andril Khlopstov in 25.84.  Romania’s Robert Glinta was also sub-26 in his time of 25.86 for the 4th seed overall.

Women’s 100 Backstroke – SEMIFINAL

Make it another Russian 1-2 finish headed into finals, as Mariia Kamaneva earned her 2nd top seed from the morning, winning the 100 backstroke semi-final spot in a time of 1:01.57.  Kameneva is on an impressive streak, having already earned gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay, in addition to two bronze medals  – one in the 100 freestyle and one in the 50 backstroke.  Alongside her teammate, Russian Polina Egorova clocked the 2nd fastest 100 back time of the morning, earning the 2nd seed in 1:01.97.

Men’s 100 Butterfly – SEMIFINAL

16-year old Danii Pakhomov threw down an incredible time to re-break the World Junior Record he held just from the earlier prelims session in this event.  In heats, Pakhomov set a new World Junior mark of 52.25, only to lower it to 52.13 in this session, to position him as the clear favorite to win this event with perhaps another monster time. Pakhomov cracks the top 20 in the world rankings with this strong performance, with still the final yet to be contested.
NOTE – The previous WJR was listed as NZL’s Daniel Bell (52.52), however, China’s Zhuhao Li actually broke that mark in 2014, registering a 51.91 at the Incheon Asian Games.  With the FINA WJR statistics not displaying Li’s record, it is unclear whether that mark is officially recognized by FINA and, therefore, if it would still stand even in light of Pakhomov’s performances today.

Women’s 200 IM – SEMIFINAL

A terrific women’s 200 IM final is shaping up, as the women’s 400 IM 1-2 finishers will now appear in a head-to-head showdown in this event.  The silver medalist in that 400 IM, Italy’s Ilaria Cusinato, led the 2 IM field this morning, registering the only sub-2:15 time of 2:14.35.  Not far behind, as the 3rd seed, is the 400IM gold medalist, Great Britain’s Abbie Wood, whose time of 2:15.34 will put her in contention for another gold.  In between these two rivals is these Games’ 200 butterfly gold medalist, Julia Mrozinski, who touched the wall in 2:15.02 to also put herself in the mix for this 200 IM gold medal come the final.

Men’s 200 Freestyle – SEMIFINAL

A battle in the 2nd semifinal of the men’s 200 freestyle was just a preview for what is sure to be an absolutely killer final.  Russia’s Elisel Stepanov and Great Britain’s Cameron Curl were stroke-for-stroke the final 50 meters, directly next to one another with arms almost touching until it was Stepanov who just got the final edge to close in 1:49.42.  Curl was immediately behind in 1:49.50.  Stepanov’s Russian teammate Nikolay Snegirev was also sub-1:50, clocking a speed 1:49.57 for the 3rd seed.  Look for these three to push each other towards the current World Junior Record of 1:47.23 in the final race to gold.

Women’s 100 Breaststroke – SEMIFINAL

Russia’s Maria Astashkina blew the semifinal field away in the 100 breaststroke on her way to earning a trifecta of gold medals in the stroke at these Games.  Already winning the top prize in both the 50 breaststroke and the 200 breaststroke, the race in which she registered a new World Junior Record mark, Astashkina beat this 100 field by over a second and half to sit as the number one seed with her time of 1:07.88.  As fast as she is relative to this Baku field, Astashkina would need to drop over 2 seconds, however, to overtake the current 100 breaststroke WJR held by Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte in 1:05.39.

Men’s 200 Backstroke – FINAL

Great Britain’s Luke Greenbank simply owned this race from start to finish, racing his way to a brand new World Junior Record and Baku gold medal in 1:56.89.   Greenbank paced the race beautifully, with an opening 50 meters of 27.10, followed by splits of 29.20 and 29.97, to close in 30.62.  Greenbank’s time surpasses the previous WJR mark of Li Guangyuan of China, whose time of 1:56.94 from Nanjing in 2014 was just .05 slower.  Behind Greenbank in this final was Belarus’ Mikita Tsmyn in 1:59.46 for silver, followed by Russia’s Roman Larin‘s time of 1:59.60 for bronze.

Women’s 200 Freestyle – FINAL

An absolutely thrilling race, the kind that makes one jump out of her seat as the swimmers charge to the wall in a frenzied finish.  The Netherlands’ 15-year old sprinting phenom, Marrit Steenbergen led the entire first 75 meters, looking smooth and strong and able to hold off the ever-present Arina Openysheva from Russia, who was constantly lurking by her side.  Into the last 25m, however, Steenbergen looked to be tightening up, right at the same time that Openysheva tapped into her reserves.  The Russian surged ahead and overtook the lead right when it counted most to steal the gold right from under Steenbergen.  Final times were 1:58.22 for Openysheva and 1:58.99 for Steenbergen.  Germany’s Leonie Kullmann wound up 3rd in a time of 1:59.77.  Split details below reveals the pain Steenbergen must have been feeling towards the end of that last 50, as she clocked the slowest final length of the entire field:

Openysheva – 27.75/29.29/30.68/30.50 = 1:58.22
Steenbergen – 27.42/29.15/30.46/31.96 = 1:58.99

Men’s 100 Breaststroke – SEMIFINAL

Russia’s Anton Chupkov was the top swimmer from the 100 breast semi’s, managing to swim a sub-1:01 time of 1:00.95 to claim the top seed.  Lithuania’s Andrius Sidlauskas was also sub-1:01 by just .01, registering a 1:00.99 to be right next to Chupkov in the finals.  Sidlauskas had already won a gold in the men’s 50m breaststroke this competition, so look for these two men to push each other towards the wall for gold in the final, and possibly to a new WJR.  Chupkov is the owner of the WJR in this event with his 1:00.84 from Nanjing, but given the semi’s results, this mark certainly is in jeopardy.

Women’s 100 Butterfly – FINAL

Another race, another Russian win, as is the theme thus far in these European Games.  This time, Polina Egorova clenched her 4th gold medal of the competition, winning the women’s 100 fly in the only sub-minute time of the field.  Egorova took it out a little slower than her semi outing, touching in 28.09 at the first 50m, but she back-halfed this swim to grab her gold, finishing in a 31.27 for a final time of 59.36.  Runner-up in the race was Great Britain’s Amelia Clynes, who took silver in 1:00.12, followed by a tie for bronze between Greece’s Ilektra Varvara Lebl and Great Britain’s Laura Stephens who each touched in 1:0054.  That makes Greece’s second medal in the swimming portion of these Games.

Men’s 800 Freestyle – FINAL (Fastest Heat)

The Frenchman, Nicolas D’Oriano, did his distance thing again, nabbing his 2nd gold of these Games.  In addition to winning the men’s 1500 freestyle earlier in the meet, D’Oriano dominated the 800 distance and clocked the only sub-8:00 time of the final’s field.  D’Oriano’s time of 7:59.87 is his fastest this year and enough to stand atop the podium to give France its second gold of the swimming portion of these Games.  Silver went to Spain’s Marcos Rodriguez who registered a time of 8:01.73 and Germany’s Henning Muehlleitner claimed bronze in 8:04.33.

Women’s 50 Freestyle – FINAL

The splash n’ dash came down to a total of just .04 of a second between gold and silver, with Russian Mariia Kameneva clenching the win in a time of 25.23, bringing her Game’s gold total to a whopping 4. Denmark’s Marrit Steenbergen settled for another silver on the night to go with her 200 free 2nd place finish, touching in 25.27 for the runner-up position in this 50.  Bronze went to Denmark’s Julie Jensen in a time of 25.41.  Russia’s Vasilissa Buinaia was disqualified after a noticeable jump at the start.

Men’s 50 Backstroke – FINAL

The two of the top three men from the 100m backstroke made their way onto the podium in this shorter sprint, but in different positions.  Russia’s Filipp Shopin managed to spin his arms to the top time of 25.40 to earn the gold in the 50 back, followed by Germany’s Marek Ulrich who registered a 25.44 for silver.  Shopin was the silver medalist and Ulrich snagged the bronze medal in the 100 back event earlier in this competition.   The 50 backstroke bronze medal was claimed by Ukraine’s Andrii Khlopstov, who touched in 25.71 after winning gold in the 50 butterfly in a previous session.

Mixed 4×100 Medley Relay – FINAL

Day 4’s second session wrapped up with the mixed 4×100 medley relay, which saw an array of different male/female lineups across the board.  The winning combination came from Russia, however, as its female-male-male-female foursome of Maria Kemeneva, Anton Chupkov, Daniil Pakhomov and Arina Openysheva overcame a 7 second deficit going to take charge and earn the gold in 3:49.53.  The silver medal-winning team from Great Britain took a different approach, lining up their squad in male-male-female-female mode, with Luke Greenbank opening up a giant lead with a 54.86 backstroke split, followed by Charlie Attwood‘s lead maintaining-breaststroke leg.  15-year old Amelia Clynes held on to the lead through her first 50m of butterfly, but just was not in the same league as Pakhomov who sped right past the youngster on his way to giving Openysheva a good amount of space between the squads going into the final stretch.  GBR’s Georgia Coates still swam a solid anchor to secure the silver for her team.  Germany earned the bronze in the event tonight, clocking a time of 3:54.27 for their effort.