2015 European Short Course Championship Day 1 Prelims Live Recap

2015 European Short Course Swimming Champions at the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Israel

• Wednesday, December 2nd-6th
• Prelims at 9:30 am local (2:30 AM EST)/Finals at 5:30 pm local (10:30 am EST)
• Meet Information
• Event Timeline
• Live Stream: LEN Webcast
• Live Results

(Note for those reading results: Only TWO swimmers per nation may advance to the semi-finals, therefore you will see some swimmers from bigger countries “skipped” in the order of Qs in preliminary results)

Men’s 100 Butterfly

Matteo Rivolta of Italy blasted the event open in the first circle seeded head, swimming the first 50 in 23.13. He would finish in 49.72 to qualify 1st for the semi-final. Rivolta is a bit of a surprise- although he medaled at European Long Course in 2012, he has no major short course medals to date. Laszlo Cseh, swimming on his 30th birthday, was the only other swimmer under 50 seconds. 16th place went to Robert Zbogar of Slovenia in 52.05

Women’s 50 Breaststroke

Two national records were set by the top qualifiers in this race: Belgium’s Fanny Lecluyse and Finland’s Jenna Laukkanen. Both swimmers got under 30 for the first time in their career, with Lecluyse leading the way in 29.75 and Laukkanen not far behind in 29.89. The dominant junior breaststroker in the world right now, Viktoria Gunes, was also through to the semi-final in 30.59. 16th place was Ukraine’s Ganna Dzerkel in 31.01. Moniek Nijhuis, the only returning medalist from Herning in 2013, qualified 4th.

Men’s 50 Breaststroke

It was Lithuanian veteran Giedrius Titenis who qualified first in what looks to be one of the most competitive events in the meet. Just .63 separated 1st and 16th place. Adam Peaty, however is the man to beat. The long course world record holder and silver medalist from the Doha World Short Course swam a comfortable 26.65 to qualify 7th. It took 27.08 to make it into the semi-final.

Women’s 400 IM

Katinka Hosszu is hands down the most compelling swimmer to watch in the world. She wasted no time getting after it in this first session, breaking Mireia Belmonte’s short course world record right off the bat. Hosszu swam 4:19.46, a performance so dominant that the next best swimmers were nearly ten seconds back. Hosszu’s splits:

59.19

2:04.32 (1:05.13)

3:19.75 (1:15.43)

4:19.46 (59.71)

The swim is Hosszu’s fifth current short course world record. The next two qualifiers were Lara Grangeon of France and fellow Hungarian Zsuzsanna Jakabos. Only Grangeon came close to matching one of Hosszu’s splits, with her 1:15.60 on breaststroke. It took 4:35.00 to make the final.

Men’s 400 Freestyle

After the excitement of Hosszu’s swim, the men’s 400 freestyle was a much more subdued affair. All of the medal contenders appeared to coast a bit through the preliminaries, preferring to save their best effort for the final. 2014 World Champion from Hungary Peter Bernek was the top qualifier in 3:39.82, with Germany’s Paul Biedermann qualifying 4th. Two 19 year old swimmers will bring new blood to the final, Poland’s Wojciech Wojdak and Henrik Christiansen of Norway.

Women’s 100 Backstroke

With roughly half an hour to recover from her record swim, Katinka Hosszu was somewhat more reserved in this swim. Still, she qualified first, and only the Czech Republic’s Simona Baumrtova (2nd in 57.34) looks to be in any position to challenge her in this race. 16th place qualified with a 59.59. Both Italy and Germany managed to qualify two swimmers for the semi.

Men’s 200 Backstroke

Yakov Jan Toumarkin had the home crowd on their feet as he qualified 1st in 1:50.33. The 23 year old has never quite capitalized on the promise he showed in winning the European Junior title in 2010, but he may breakthrough with his country behind him. To win, Toumarkin will have to overcome defending world champion Radoslaw Kawecki of Poland, who qualified 2nd. Still, there is an opportunity with defending Euro champ Peter Bernek electing to swim the 400 free. Israel will have two swimmers in the final, as David Gamburg finished 8th and closed out the finals qualifying in 1:53.12.

Men’s 4×50 Freestyle Relay

A pair of disqualifications in the second heat means that every relay from the preliminary heat will advance to the final. This will create quite an imbalanced heat, as Russia qualified first well back of their own world record in 1:24.08, and Norway will be the 10th team in the final at 1:32.11. Italy qualified 2nd in 1:25.56, and it’s hard to see them moving up too far as they used Marco Orsi (fastest split of the morning at 20.75) and Fillipo Magnini in the morning.

Russia is competing under the cloud of the recent revelations that has caused WADA to declare their doping controls non-compliant. It’s worth noting that host country Israel was also declared to be non-compliant.

Women’s 800 Freestyle

With Mireia Belmonte not taking part, Britain’s Jazmin Carlin and the Netherlands Sharon Rouwendaal are the favorites coming off their silver and bronze performance a year ago in Doha. Boglarka Kapas, fresh off being the only swimmer to defeat Katinka Hosszu at Hungarian Short Course Nationals in this event, looms as a potential spoiler. Another swimmer who is peaking at the right moment is 6th place qualifier Anja Klinar of Slovenia, who earlier this month set a national record in 8:15.26.