2016 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS DAY 4
- Monday, May 16th – Sunday, May 22nd
- Prelims: 10:00 AM (London Time) / 5:00 AM (Eastern Time)
- Finals: 6:00 PM (London Time) / 1:00 PM (Eastern Time)
- London Aquatics Center, London, UK
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Stream
Sarah Sjostrom is so far one of the biggest favorites in the entire world to win in Rio. Even with the recent resurgence of 2012 winner Dana Vollmer, Sjostrom’s best in the 100 butterfly is well ahead of her next closest competitors. Sjostrom will swim that race today in one of her final tune ups prior to the Rio Games.
The first event of the morning will also let us chart the progress of 200 breaststroke contender Viktoria Gunes. Gunes was a little bit off her personal best in the 100 earlier in the meet, but this is her biggest race. The 16 year old was 2:19.64 last summer, which left her just a few tenths off Rikke Moeller Pedersen’s world record. Pedersen will swim this morning as well.
Women’s 200 Breaststroke
- Molly Renshaw, GBR 2:24.70
- Chloe Tutton, GBR 2:25.79
- Rikke Moeller Pedersen, DEN 2:25.90
- Hrafnhildur Luthersdottir, ISL 2:25.99
- Jessica Vall Montero, ESP 2:26.29
- Viktoria Gunes, TUR 2:26.54
- Jenna Laukkanen, FIN 2:26.78
- Martina Moravcikova, CZE 2:27.24
This race should feature a great competition throughout, and the morning did not disappoint. All the medalists from the 2014 Europeans are back, with Pedersen (gold), Renshaw (silver) and Montero (Bronze) in the top eight going into the semi. Meanwhile, Gunes, who put up the fastest time in the world last summer, is in 6th.
Tutton is another contender, having shattered the British record with a 2:22.34 at British trials. Lastly, Luthersdottir from Iceland has been swimming extremely well this weekend. Although she usually favors shorter distances slightly, she has a personal best of 2:23.0 and chopped a solid four tenths of a second from her 100 earlier this competition.
Men’s 100 Freestyle
- Clement Mignon, FRA 48.40
- Velimir Stepjanovic, SRB 48.59
- Sebastiaan Verschuren, NED 48.61
- Glenn Surgeloose, BEL 48.64
- Luca Dotto, ITA 48.68
- Jeremy Stravius, FRA 48.82
- Pieter Timmers, BEL 48.84
- Andrey Grechin, RUS 48.86
Intra-country competition breathed some life into the preliminary round of this race. Both Italy, France and Belgiumhad more than two entries fighting for their country’s two spots in the semi-final. The odd men out ended up being Metella for France, Leonardi for Italy and Dekoninck for Belgium.
Glenn Surgeloose continues to have an excellent meet, although in this race he still has a ways to go for his teammate, Peter Timmers’ national record of 48.22. Benjamin Proud struggled to match his personal best in this race and finished in 50.02.
Women’s 100 Butterfly
- Sarah Sjostrom, SWE 57.20
- Jeanette Ottesen, DEN 57.86
- Ilaria Bianchi, ITA 58.34
- Kimberly Buys, BEL 58.47
- Liliana Szilagyi, HUN 58.55
- Anna Ntountounaki, GRE 58.62
- Lucie Svecena, CZE 58.83
- Katarina Listopadova, SVK 58.99
Sjostrom and Ottesen are the class of this field, with only Bianchi joining them with a seed time under 58 seconds. Sjostrom, of course, has been 55 before, while Ottesen’s high water mark in this event came two years ago when she bested Sjostrom by .01 to take the Euro title.
Since then, their paths have diverged, but this remains Ottesen’s best chance for a Rio medal and she’s had some positive performances in recent months. Bianchi also won Bronze behind the two Scandinavians in 2014.
Men’s 800 Freestyle
- Gregorio Paltrinieri, ITA 7:49.87
- Gabriele Detti, ITA 7:51.40
- Mykhaylo Romanchuk, UKR 7:51.83
- Timothy Shuttleworth, GBR 7:52.33
- Jan Micka, CZE 7:52.76
- Henrik Christiansen, NOR 7:53.09
- Joris Bouchaut, FRA 7:54.41
- Gergely Gyurta, HUN 7:56.50
The top competitors from last night’s 1500 freestyle had to get back at it this morning to qualify for the non-Olympic distance. The top two from that race made it through, the Italian duo of Detti and Paltrinieri, followed by Romanchuck just as they were the night before.
Once again Joensen from the Faroes will not defend his medal.
And…..
The swimmers are not machines.
Mixed relay in Tokyo?
I say no way. Too many events in swimming already.
Classification for Women 4×200 relay for Rio changed completely now.
Before morning swims the teams for the last 4 spots were: Netherlands, Austria, Hong Kong, Spain.
After the morning: Spain, Hungary, Netherlands and Slovenia.
On French TV Philippe Lucas is actually bashing the guys who have made the schedule of the meet.
He said “no brain” and “no respect for the distance swimmers” as he remarked that the men’s 400 free, 1500 free and 800 free were all scheduled in the first 5 days of the week. The 800 free prelims only 17 hours after the 1500 free final.
He adds : “And at the same time they have put mixed relays which interest nobody.”
Lucas at his best! I’m a fan.
Does seem like a very strange schedule. I have noticed a lot for the stroke swimmers that they are having to swim preliminaries the morning after championship finals, for example the women had their 100 breaststroke final last night and have to come out and race the 200 today. In an eight day competition you should only have to do this once, and wouldn’t you want to put the 50 and 200 closer to each other since the fields will be more different…
Schedule is rubbish, easy as that. It’s pretty easy to entice everybody(freaks like Hosszu aside) when you have 7 days to work with, but they’ve still managed not to.
The mixed medley was a complete gongshow. 10 teams competed, 8 teams actually finished heats, one team scrached before the final. So there were 7 teams in the final where one team finished 22 seconds behind gold. To me having a man chase down 5-10 seconds on a girl is not good swimming. The only mixed that makes any sort of sense to me is the 4×100 free.
Mixed Relay’s won’t get the respect until countries like AUS actually compete in them. You have clearly the fastest country but say no thanks…I’m hoping it’s included in Tokyo
Dotto 48.68
Metella only 49.15
Mignon and Stravius will represent France in semifinals
Stjepanovic 48.59
Stravius 48.82 I’m not sure it will be enough.
Timmers 48.84
Gkolomeev 48.94
First heat of the favorites
Mignon 48.40
Verschuren 48.61
Surgeloose 48.64
Men’s 100 free prelims now
3 French for 2 spots in semifinals.
Mignon vs Stravius vs Metella
They can’t sleep this morning.
Verschuren, Dotto and Timmers look great since the beginning of the week.