2019 European Junior Championships Day 5 Prelims Recap

Retta Race
by Retta Race 0

July 07th, 2019 News

2019 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The final day of the 2019 European Junior Championships is upon us, with just a handful of event prelims having taken place in Kazan this morning. Russia leads both the overall medal count and points trophy and is too far to catch for the remaining nations. But, there’s a battle going down for the runner-up spot between Italy and Germany.

The men’s 50m free kicked off with top-seeded swimmer Kenzo Simons snagging a time of 22.34 to lead the pack. He owns a personal best and Dutch Junior Record of 22.20, so look for the 18-year-old to stay at the top through the semi in a bid for the gold.

Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bukhov is also in the 22-range with a morning swim of 22.48. That’s already a new personal best by .07 for the just-turned 17-year-old who collected bronze in the 100m free here behind winner Matt Richards of Great Britain and runner-up Antonio Djakovic.

Richards bypassed this 50m free event to focus on the 200m free final, as well as the 4x100m medley relay.

The women’s 50m fly saw French woman Naele Portecop produce the top seed of 26.67, while newly-minted Championships Record holder and gold medalist in the 100m fly here in Kazan, Anastasiya Shkurdai, hitting the other sub-27 of the field.

16-year-old Shkurdai posted a morning swim of 26.90, although she’s been as fast as 25.87 already in her young career. That outing sits just .03 outside of the Belarusian National Record, so Shkurdai is a proven world-class competitor in this event.

The men’s 400m IM was also in the water this morning, with Russia’s Ilya Borodin reaping the top spot in 4:18.30. Greek maestro Apostolos Papastamos already topped the podium in the men’s 200m IM and is primed to make a run for the double, capturing the 2nd seed in 4:19.54.

17-year-old Charlie Hutchison is putting his hat in the ring for a medal in the men’s 400m IM as well, producing a time of 4:21.15 for the 3rd seed. That’s within range of his own lifetime best of 4:19.34 produced at the British Championships this year.

The women’s 4x200m free relay prelims saw Great Britain surge to lane 4 for tonight’s final, logging a time of 8:14.56. The quickest split came from anchor Emma Russell‘s 2:02.79.

For the men’s 4x100m medley relay, Russia led the morning field in a time of 3:43.01, holding a narrow advantage over Great Britain and Italy who produced morning efforts of 3:43.60 and 3:43.65, respectively. 14-year-old Jacob Whittle anchored Great Britain in another big-time leg of 50.00.

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About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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