2016 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- 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
Italy’s Gabriele Detti kicked off his European Championships with a meet record in the men’s 400m freestyle final tonight in London. Trailing after only the first 100m, Detti took control of the race and never looked back, splitting 54.40/57.67/56.84/55.10 to top the podium in a final mark of 3:44.01.
Detti is not only headed toward the path of cracking his nation’s current 400m freestyle record of 3:43.40, but he also is now a viable contender for the podium in Rio. After clocking 3:43.97, a personal best, at last month’s Italian Nationals, the 21-year old is showing the kind of consistency Italian swimming enthusiasts want to see less than 90 days out from the 2016 Olympic Games.
Of his racing tonight, Detti commented, “I’m very happy with the gold medal. After the heats I had a good feeling for the final, this time is the same I clocked at the Italian nationals and this is a good sign that I’m on the right track before the Olympics.”
Silver medalist Henrik Christiansen of Norway finished under 3 seconds behind (3:46.49) and was happy with his result as well. “This silver comes as a big surprise since I’m not really tapered. I like to swim at major meets, I think the surrounding, the Olympic arena helped me a lot here,” said the young 19-year old.
For his part, Hungary’s Peter Bernek, who earned the bronze in 3:46.81, didn’t have such a sunny outlook on what transpired in the race. Frustrated with his result, Bernek told the media post-race, “I’m not tired at all, not even as much as I was in the morning, so it hasn’t come together this time. We have to analyse what went wrong, I wished to clock at least 3:45.”
