2024 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 2nd – Sunday, July 7th
- Prelims at 9:30am local/Finals at 6pm local
- Lazdynai Pool, Vilnius, Lithuania
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream ($)
We entered day four of the 2024 European Junior Championships with the nation of Italy still atop the medal table while Hungary and host nation Lithuania are hungrily on their heels.
Dora Molnar of Hungary staked her claim on the girls’ 100m freestyle, scoring a heats swim of 55.23 to lead a list of seven swimmers under the 56-second barrier.
18-year-old Molnar will try to upgrade her bronze medal from last year to gold, punching a result of 55.23 this morning. That holds a narrow advantage over the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke champion here, Sara Curtis of Italy, who snagged the 2nd seed in 55.29.
French athlete Albane Cashot is in the mix as the 3rd seed in 55.40 while another Hungarian, Minna Abraham, clocked 55.49 to place 4th thus far. Abraham already has 2 golds from these championships after taking the girls’ 200m free and topping the podium as a member of her nation’s girls’ 4x200m free relay.
Romania’s Robert-Andrei Badea is seeking a sweep of the IM events. The teen who already earned gold in the 200m earned the top spot in the 400m IM, courtesy of his morning outing of 4:21.48.
Turkish swimmer Onur Ege Oksuz joined Badea in the 4:21-zone, producing a morning swim of 4:21.65 as the 2nd-seeded contestant.
Badea owns a lifetime best of 4:16.43 in this event, a time he turned in while becoming this year’s Romanian national champion.
As for Oksuz, the 17-year-old’s outing already represents a new career-quickest result, overtaking the 4:23.14 put up just this past April.
Germany’s age group record holder Alina Baievych was the top girls’ 200m butterflier out of the prelims, establishing a time of 2:12.72 as the girl to beat.
Italy’s Giada Alzetta was just .26 behind to notch 2:12.98 while Belgium’s newly-minted 400m IM national record holder Sarah Dumont rounded out the top 3 performers in 2:13.04.
Baievych earned silver in this 2fly last year in Belgrade in a time of 2:10.78, a mark which remains the quickest of her young career.
Additional Top Seeds
- Great Britain’s 15-year-old Amelie Blocksidge already claimed gold in the girls’ 1500m free here but is hunting an additional top prize as the #1 seed in the 800m free. The teen nabbed lane 4 in 8:39.27 and will try to fight off Artemis Vasilaki of Greece (8:42.13) and Emma Vittoria Giannelli of Italy (8:43.05) during tomorrow night’s main event.
- Kuzey Tuncelli of Turkey wowed the crowd with a new World Junior Record en route to gold in last night’s 1500m free. He’s now the top seed in the 800m free, producing a morning outing of 7:59.05 to clear the field by over a second. Turkey claimed the top 3 seeds out of the heats, with Muhammed Yusuf Ozden registering 8:00.52 and Emir Batur Albayrak hitting 8:01.94, although only the top 2 performers from a single nation can move on to the final.
- Poland’s mixed medley relay was the top squad, posting 3:53.31 on a tightly packed field. Spain was right behind in 3:53.36 and Lithuania clocked 3:53.52 with the remaining relay teams of Italy and Denmark also under 3:54. Italy has won every relay here, save the girls’ 4x200m free which went to Hungary. Denmark is the reigning champion from last year and will try to repeat with a team most likely including last night’s girls’ 100m fly winner Martine Damborg.
