2026 European Junior Championships Day Six Prelims Recap

2026 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The final day of action is underway at the 2026 European Junior Swimming Championships, with this morning’s heats consisting of the boys’ and girls’ 400m freestyle and their respective medley relays.

Neutral Athlete Kseniia Misharina led the way in the girls’ 400m free, posting a solid AM outing of 4:13.72.

That holds a narrow advantage over Juliana Buttler of Germany, who clocked 4:14.04, followed closely by fellow Neutral Athlete Sofia Diakova, who punched 4:14.10.

Diakova is the reigning European Junior Championships gold medalist in this race, having produced a time of 4:07.06 last year in Slovakia. Misharina was the runner-up, less than half a second back in 4:07.52.

Lurking among the field is Hungary’s versatile Viven Jackl, the 17-year-old who took on a tough double of the 200m fly and 800m free during last night’s finals. She topped the 200m fly podium and reaped silver in the distance free event and is now in the hunt for more hardware. She earned the 4th seed this morning in 4:14.17.

Germany’s Linda Roth is another athlete to keep an eye on, with the 17-year-old carrying a time of 4:15.39 as the 5th seed.

The boys’ edition of the 400m free saw Austria’s Christian Giefing produce the quickest time and the sole outing of the field under the 3:50 threshold, albeit by a fingernail.

The 18-year-old has been relatively quiet throughout this competition, despite entering the meet as the defending 200m freestyle winner from last year.

This morning Giefing touched in 3:49.98 to lead the pack, already turning in the second-best time of his young career. His only other mark under 3:50 came just this past April when Giefing hit a lifetime best of 3:49.50 in Germany.

Italian Francesco Volpe secured a lane for tonight’s main event, putting up 3:50.41 as the 2nd seed. However, Neutral Athlete Grigorii Vekovishchev, the reigning 400m free gold medalist from both Euro Juniors and World Juniors, is right in the mix with a 3rd-seeded 3:50.42.

Hungary’s Oliver Papai is ready to follow up his big-time anchor on his nation’s 4x200m free last night with potential hardware in this event.

Papai notched a 4th-seeded 3:51.67 to throw his hat in the ring. Last night, he delivered a spicy split of 1:46.77 as the 2nd-best leg across all squads.

Top 8 Girls’ 4x100m Medley Relays

  1. Neutral Athletes – 4:07.15
  2. Italy – 4:08.13
  3. Spain – 4:08.19
  4. Great Britain – 4:08.67
  5. Hungary – 4:09.41
  6. Switzerland – 4:09.80
  7. Romania – 4:10.20
  8. Lithuania – 4:10.31

Top 8 Boys’ 4x100m Medley Relays

  1. Greece – 3:39.33
  2. Neutral Athletes – 3:41.21
  3. Italy – 3:41.31
  4. France – 3:41.45
  5. Great Britain – 3:41.69
  6. Germany – 3:41.91
  7. Ukraine – 3:42.29
  8. Turkey – 3:42.56

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About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having 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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