2016 Euro Meet Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2016 Euro Meet

• January 29th-31st
• D’Coque Aquatic Center in Luxembourg
• Friday timed finals at 4pm local (10am EST)
• Saturday prelims at 8am local (2am EST); finals at 5pm local (11am EST)
• Sunday prelims at 8:30am local (2:30am EST); finals at 4pm local (10am EST)
• Meet Site
• Start Lists/Results
• Live Streaming

WOMEN’S 400 IM – TIMED FINAL

Utter domination describes Hungarian Katinka Hosszu‘s performance in the final heat of the women’s 400m IM in Luxembourg. Hosszu kicked off her monster swim with a solid 1:02.37 opening fly split and never looked back, leading the field by well over two body lengths right off the bat. Her final time of 4:34.33 was enough to obliterate the field by over 6 seconds, as well as clock a new Euro Meet Record. Hosszu held the old mark of 4:37.93, so she knocked a full 3 and a half seconds off that time, sending a message to rival, Mireia Belmonte from Spain.

Hosszu remains on top of the world rankings with the 4:33.88 she clocked earlier this season in Dubai, but her time tonight ranks as the 2nd-fastest:

Finishing with the silver tonight was Great Britain’s Hannah Miley, who did what she could against the formidable #IronLady.  Miley registered a mark of 4:41.35, a time on the slower end of the Garioch Club swimmer’s speed spectrum. Miley’s most recent quickest time was the 4:32.16 she scored at last year’s British Championships.

Hungary made it a 1 & 3 finish by way of Hosszu’s teammate Zsuzsanna Jakabos snatching up the bronze medal, touching in 4:41.35. She was able to hold off a charging Mireia Belmonte, from Spain, who finished off the podium in 4:42.58 for fourth.

If entries hold, Belmonte and Hosszu will face each other two more times tonight – the women’s 200m fly and the 800m free.

MEN’S 400 IM – TIMED FINAL

Not a particularly swift 400m IM from what the Hungarian has proven he is capable of, but Laszlo Cseh indeed got the win tonight with a time of 4:17.41, a new meet record. His mark tonight surpassed that of Greece’s Ioannis Drymonakos‘ 4:18.46 from the 2012 version of this meet.

Cseh surged to the lead in the fly leg, splitting 56.88, and held on to the lead, despite Drymonakos riding his hip the entire first 300-ish meters. Heading into the freestyle flipturn, however, Cseh took things up a notch and left Drymonakos in his flutter kick dust, where lane 4’s Raphael Stacchiotti made his move. Stacchiotti, from host country Luxembourg, sneaked into the silver medal position, touching in 4:18.94 the 3rd-fastest time of his career.

Drymonakos wound up with the bronze medal tonight, rounding out the podium in a time of 4:19.93. With Cseh and Hosszu both winning, the Hungarians are now 2 for 2 in terms of gold medals and meet records so far tonight.

WOMEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY – PRELIMS

The top 10 women from tonight’s prelims will return to compete in the final tomorrow night in Luxembourg, but not before the meet record was broken twice already. First, Germany’s Franziska Hentke rocked a 2:09.57 to surpass the old meet mark of 2:10.08 set by Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos last year.

Hentke threw down a scorcher of a time last July at 2:05.26 at the German Open. That mark would have won the World Championships and thus remained the top time of 2015, proving what Hentke has the capability of throwing down under the right conditions.  Look for her to possibly lead the pack of talented females in tomorrow’s finals.

She’ll need to get through a surprising Spaniard, though, in the form of Judith Ignacio, who also overtook the previous meet record. Ignacio stopped the clock tonight in the final heat in a time of 2:09.54 to take the top seed and land lane 4 for the final.  Ignacio’s career-best is 2:06.66, but her quickest since that 2014 mark was her 2:08.70 outing from last year. With Hosszu, Belmonte and Hentke in the mix, though, she just may have the surrounding speed to push her to the 2:06-range again.

As for Hosszu and Belmonte, they finished in the 7th and 4th seeded spots, respectively, with the Hungarian clocking a time of 2:13.69 and Belmonte touching in 2:11.86. Joining them in the final will also be Laura Stephens, Hannah Miley, Jessica Vall, Jessica Steiger and Sabrina Marzahn.

MEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY – PRELIMS

An impressive double by 30-year-old Laszlo Cseh leaves the Hungarian as the top seed from these men’s 200 fly prelims, scoring a time of 1:59.76. Cseh’s leading time was the only one to dip beneath the 2-minute threshold, with his Grecian 400m IM rival, Ioannis Drymonakos touching just above it at 2:00.11.

In the 3rd seed is Ireland’s Brendan Hyland, who registered a mark of 2:00.46, a FINA “B”-qualifying mark. So far, only breaststroker Fiona Doyle from Ireland has clocked an “A” qualifying time, finding herself under the 100m breaststroke mark from the World University Games. Hyland will no doubt be trying to achieve the 200 fly “A” mark of 1:56.97 in the finals. Countryman Shane Ryan will also be trying to achieve Olympic-qualifying cuts in the backstroke events at this Euro Meet.

Joining Cseh  Drymonakos and Hyland in the final tomorrow night will be Dmitry Popov, Petr Zhikharev, Kevin Wedel, Tobais Horn, Joan Lluis Pons, Philiue Luecker and Paul Nitschke.

MIXED 400 FREESTYLE RELAY – PRELIMS

After a disqualification of the would-be-8th seeded squad, the Aquatics Sports Association, the results were finally posted. The ASA squad was indeed disqualified due to the swimmers not having swum in the order given prior to the race.

The top 2 finishing teams from prelims both came within a second of the meet record, which currently stands at 3:36.00 form last year. First seed went to Badischer Schwimm-Verband, who collectively touched in a mark of 3:36.68, followed by the Danish Swimming Federation 1, making their time in 3:36.97. They’ll battle with the 8 additional teams making the final to be contested tomorrow night.

WOMEN’S 800 FREESTYLE – TIMED FINAL

An exciting race ensued in the women’s 800m final heat, with Hungarian Katinka Hosszu flying out to the front for the first 500 meters of the race. Hosszu split 2:03.80 to Spain’s Mireia Belmonte‘s 2:07.27 at the 200m mark for example, which exemplifies the over- two-body-length lead the #IronLady held in the early portion of the race.

But, Belmonte didn’t back down, instead she charged ahead and took advantage of a fading Hosszu. Belmonte finished strongly, brilliantly negative splitting her race, with a 4:15.55 opening 400m and a back-half 400m split of 4:13.27 for a first-place time of 8:28.82. Contrast that to Hosszu who opened in 4:13.74 only to drop down to 4:23.85 for a bronze medal time of 8:37.59. Remember, though, Hosszu clocked a swift 400m IM earlier, earning gold and breaking a meet record in the process.

For an added bonus, Belmonte broke Hosszu’s meet record from 2014, a mark which stood at 8:29.42. With Maria Vilas keeping up with her Spanish teammate Belmonte the entire race, she maintained her presence to close in the silver medal spot, touching in 8:31.51, the 2nd-best time of her career.

MEN’S 1500 FREESTYLE – TIMED FINAL

In the final event of the night, the men’s 1500m freestyle, young Ukrainian swimmer, Mykhaylo Romanchuk, took the gold in a new meet record time. 15:06.15 sealed tonight’s victory, the 19-year-old’s 4th-fastest time of his career. The mark surpassed the previous meet record of 15:13.48 held by Thomas Lurz since 2008.

Romanchuk is his nation’s record holder in the 1500m freestyle event, having clocked at 14:57.82 in Kazan at last year’s World Championships.

Czech Republic’s Jan Micka bagged the silver in 15:08.52, while Spanish swimmer Marc Sanchez swam to bronze in 15:14.18.