2021 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 6th – Sunday, July 11th
- Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
- Heats at 9:30am local (3:30am EST)/Finals at 6pm local (Noon EST)
- LCM (50m)
- Start Lists/Results
The first finals session of the 2021 European Junior Championships in Rome will feature four finals (the men’s 400 free, women’s 400 IM, men’s 4×100 free relay, and women 4×200 free relay) and four semifinals (the women’s 50 breast, men’s 100 back, men’s 50 fly, and women’s 100 free.)
Men’s 400 Freestyle – Final
- World Junior Record: 3:44.60 – Mack Horton, AUS (2014)
- European Junior Record: 3:46.06 – Gabor Zombori, HUN (2019)
- European Junior Championship Record: 3:46.26 – Yannick Agnel, FRA (2010)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Antonio Djakovic (SUI)
Top 8:
- Batuhan Filiz (TUR) – 3:50.68
- Jovan Lekic (BIH) – 3:50.79
- David Koutny (CZE) – 3:51.05
- Jon Joentvedt (NOR) – 3:51.54
- Karlo Percinic (CRO) – 3:52.41
- Vlad Stefan Stancu (ROU) – 3:53.09
- Yigit Aslan (TUR) – 3:53.62
- Kiran Winkler (GER) – 3:55.37
Turkey’s Batuhan Filiz crushed his prelims time of 3:51.60, which earned him the top seed spot in finals. This 3:50.68 is a lifetime best for Filiz by about 1.3 seconds, destroying his previous lifetime best from April.
Filiz came within .61 of the Turkish National record in this event which was set by Nezir Karap at the 2015 World Championships.
Jovan Lekic of Bosnia and Herzegovina took out the race nearly one full second ahead of Filiz, splitting a 26.43 on the first 50 meters. At the 350-meter mark Lekic was still ahead, flipping at 3:22.91 compared to Filiz’s 3:23.51.
In fact, at the 350-meter mark three swimmers were ahead of Filiz: Lekic, the Czech Repuclib’s David Koutny (3:22.35) and Norway’s Jon Joentvedt (3:23.30).
But Filiz had the strongest finish uot of the top five finishers, bringing home the gold with a final 50 split of 29.60.
This was a phenomenal swim for Lekic who came into this meet with a lifetime best time of 3:54.24 from mid-June.
Women’s 50 Breaststroke – Semifinal
- World Junior Record: 29.30 – Benedetta Pilato, ITA (2021)
- European Junior Record: 29.30 – Benedetta Pilato, ITA (2021)
- European Junior Championship Record: 29.75 – Benedetta Pilato, ITA (2021)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Benedetta Pilato, ITA
Top 8:
- Benedetta Pilato (ITA) – 29.98
- Elena Bogomolova (RUS) – 30.49
- Iuliia Beznosova (RUS) – 30.93
- Eneli Jefimova (EST) – 31.09
- Karolina Piechowicz (POL) – 31.29
- Justine Delmas (FRA) – 31.34
- Kamila Isayeva (UKR) – 31.49
- Zofia Chrzan (POL) – 31.83
World record holder Benedetta Pilato of Italy was .23 off her prelims time which broke her own Championship record from 2019. 16-year-old Pilato’s World record stands at 29.30 from the 2021 European Championships in Budapest.
Russia’s Elena Bogomolova shaved .03 off her lifetime best time from prelims to secure the 2nd spot going into tomorrow’s final and her teammate Iuliia Besnosova racked 31.00 for the first time to snag 3rd.
Justine Delmas of France is the only swimmer from the 2019 final to make the final this year. She placed 7th in 2019 with a time of 31.85, which was her lifetime best time going into this meet.
Men’s 100 Backstroke – Semifinal
- World Junior Record: 52.53 – Kliment Kolesnikov, RUS (2018)
- European Junior Record: 52.53 – Kliment Kolesnikov, RUS (2018)
- European Junior Championship Record: 53.52 – Daniel Cristian Martin, ROU (2018)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Thomas Ceccon (ITA)
Top 8:
- Ksawery Masiuk (POL) – 54.35
- Oleksandr Zheltyakov (UKR) – 54.57
- Berke Saka (TUR) – 55.23
- Aleksei Tkachev (RUS) – 55.29
- Kaloyan Levterov (BUL) – 55.76
- Maximilien Hugot (FRA) – 55.83
- Filip Kosinski (POL) – 55.87
- Ivan Buyevich (BLR) – 55.91
Ksawery Masiuk of Poland downed his lifetime best time for the second time today to earn the top spot going into tomorrow’s final. He beat his prelims time by about one-third of a second. His best time going into this meet was 54.94 from May
15-year-old Oleksandr Zheltyakov crushed the Ukrainian National record, set at 55.00 by Dmytro Gurnytskyy at the 2016 Belarusian Open Championships, to snag 2nd going into tomorrow’s final. He bested his prelims time by more than one second and split the race 27.03/27.54, coming home one-third of a second faster than Masiuk.
Berke Saka came within one-third of a second of the Turkish National record, set by Mert Ali Satir in May, to place 3rd.
Everyone in the top 8 improved upon their prelims times except for Aleksei Tkachev and Filip Kosinski, who were off by .02 and .36, respectively.
Women’s 400 Individual Medley – Final
- World Junior Record: 4:38.46 – Yu Yiting, CHN (2021)
- European Junior Record: 4:38.53 – Alba Vasquez Ruiz, ESP (2019)
- European Junior Championship Record: 4:40.64 – Alba Vasquez Ruiz, ESP (2019)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Isabel Gose (GER)
Top 8:
- Katie Shanahan (GBR) – 4:42.59
- Deniz Ertan (TUR) – 4:43.65
- Anastasiia Sorokina (RUS) – 4:45.58
- Emma Carrasco Cadens (ESP) – 4:46.25
- Freya Colbert (GBR) – 4:46.54
- Camille Tissandie (FRA) – 4:46.98
- Lilla Minna Abraham (HUN) – 4:49.20
- Lisa Nystrand (SWE) – 4:50.04
Great Britain’s Katie Shanahan crushed her prelims time by nearly 3 seconds to win gold in the final. This was a lifetime best time for Shanahan whose previous fastest 400 IM time was 4:43.36 from the 2019 European Junior Championships where she placed 3rd.
Her teammate Freya Colbert, who placed 4th in 2019, took 5th place tonight, 3 seconds off her lifetime best from this meet in 2019.
Deniz Ertan of Turkey demolished her prelims time by nearly 4 seconds to jump over Colbert and earn silver. Russia’s Anastasiia Sorokina had an even larger margin of improvement from this morning (about 7 seconds) to snag bronze.
Sorokina was still about 2 seconds off her lifetime best time from the Russian Championships in April.
Men’s 50 Butterfly – Semifinal
- World Junior Record: 23.05 – Andrei Minakov, RUS (2020)
- European Junior Record: 23.05 – Andrei Minakov, RUS (2020)
- European Junior Championship Record: 23.48 – Noe Ponti, SUI (2019)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Noe Ponti (SUI)
Top 8:
- Josif Miladinov (BUL) – 23.71
- Tobias Schulrath (GER) – 23.92
- Rasmus Nickelsen (DEN) – 24.10
- Diogo Matos Ribeiro (POR) – 24.13
- Vladislav Reznichenko (RUS) – 24.15
- Pawel Uryniuk (POL) – 24.20
- Kacper Czapla (POL) – 24.21
- Daniel Gracik (CZE) – 24.29
Bulgaria’s Josif Miladinov took .23 off his prelims time to earn the top spot in tomorrow’s final, leaping over the fastest swimmer this morning: Rasmus Nickelsen who posted a 23.85 in prelims. Nickelson was a bit slower in the semifinal, but still qualified for the final relatively comfortably in 3rd place.
Miladinov placed 6th in this event in 2019.
Germany’s Tobias Schulrath cracked 24.00 for the first time in his life to win the second spot in the final. His best time going into this meet was 24.42 from the German Championships in June.
It was a tight battle between places 4th through 8th with them being separated by only .16.
Women’s 100 Freestyle – Semifinal
- World Junior Record: 52.70 – Penny Oleksiak, CAN (2016)
- European Junior Record: 53.61 – Freya Anderson, GBR (2018)
- European Junior Championship Record: 53.97 – Marrit Steenbergen, NED (2015)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Isabel Gose (GER)
Top 8:
- Daria Klepikova (RUS) – 55.04
- Nina Stanisavljevic (SRB) – 55.42
- Daria Tatarinova (RUS) – 55.45
- Evelyn Davis (GBR) – 55.55
- Carmen Weiler Sastre (ESP) – 55.72
- Daria Golovati (ISR) – 55.77*
- Tanja Popovic (SRB) – 55.77*
- Matilde Biagiotti (ITA) – 55.79
Russia’s Daria Klepikova was one of three Daria’s to qualify for the 100 free final today. 16-year-old Klepikova came within .30 of her lifetime best 100 free time from the Russian Championships in April to earn the top spot in tomorrow’s final.
Her teammate Daria Tatarinova placed 3rd and Israel’s Daria Golovati tied for 6th place with Serbia’s Tanja Popovic.
Serbia’s Nina Stanisavljevic outswam her prelims time by more than half a second to earn the 2nd spot in the final.
Men’s 4×100 Freestyle – Final
- World Junior Record: 3:15.80 – United States (2019)
- European Junior Record: 3:16.26 – Russia (2019)
- European Junior Championship Record: 3:16.58 – Italy (2009)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Russia
Top 8:
- Russia (Kosenkov, Levchenko, Nazipov, Reznichenko) – 3:19.66
- Romania (Popovici, Gergely, Cozma, Dinu) – 3:19.93
- Poland (Masiuk, Matuszewski, Zurawel, Chowaniec) – 3:19.96
- Bulgaria (Nankov, Mitsin, Levterov, Miladinov) – 3:20.86
- Italy (Dalla Costa, Serio, COngia, Oppioli) – 3:20.92
- Germany (Sorgius, Eidam, Atmar, Dementiev) – 3:22.38
- Croatia (Hribar, Surkovic, Serdarevic, Jankovic) – 3:22.64
- Switzerland (Rusch, Yeboah, Wickihalter, Chtaini) – 3:23.78
Romania’s David Popovici already broke the Championship record on the lead-off leg of the 4×100 relay with a time of 48.32, but he bested the 100 free World Junior record in the final with a split of 47.56.
16-year-old Popovici went out in 23.07 and came back in 24.49.
The previous record was set by Andrei Minakov of Russia at 47.57 in 2020. This time simultaneously breaks the European Junior record and his own Championship record from prelims.
Popovici demolished his lifetime best time going into this meet, 48.08 from the recent European Championships in Budapest.
No one else broke 48.00 on their split, but Russia’s anchor Vladislav Reznichenko came the closest (48.90).
Women’s 4×200 Freestyle – Final
- World Junior Record: 7:51.47 – Canada (2017)
- European Junior Record: 7:57.33 – Russia (2017)
- European Junior Championship Record: 7:58.99 – Hungary (2017)
- 2019 European Junior Champion: Russia
Top 8:
- Hungary (Veres, Fabian, Nyiradi, Padar) – 8:00.95
- Russia (Sabitova, Trofimova, Kudriavtseva, Starostina) – 8:04.78
- Turkey (Boecekler, Tuncel, Oezdemir, Ertan) – 8:09.11
- Spain (Otero Fernandez, Martin de la Torre, Cernadas Gonzalez, Martinez Guillen) – 8:12.19
- Great Britain (Colbert, Little, Davis, Van Selm) – 8:14.60
- Germany (Finger, Seifert, Maertens, Klein) – 8:15.78
- Poland (Gusc, Kulik, Lojewski, Tarasiewicz) – 8:18.28
- Lithuania (Plytnykaite, Kondraskaite, Romanovskaja, Statkevicius) – 8:27.55
Italy placed 3rd to win bronze, but they were disqualified due to a false start. This earned Turkey a bronze medal, bringing them up to three medals today (one gold, one silver and one bronze.)
Russia’s Daria Trofimova posted the fastest 200 split in the field on the second leg of the relay, 1:59.76, closely followed by Hungary’s anchor Nikoletta Padar (1:59.80).
Since there were only 9 entries in this relay, it was contested as a timed final.
clearly Popovici manipulated the water
Bold prediction: Popovici 1.44.9 in the 200 free
thats not that bold
What Popovici did is mind-boggling.
I need time to process his learning curve right now.
He was a 49.4 back in October. Wtf
I’m pretty sure I swam like a 33.3 in the 50 breast final at this meet 20 years ago and I didn’t finish 8th either. Crazy how fast breaststroke has gotten…
Let’s be honest, you weren’t gonna finish 8th at this meet.
Hahaha… poor Cody Miller, he’s never going to live that down.
I was pretty surprised I even advanced towards the final. I think I got 6th or 7th. Kate Haywood won. I still remember that. She was probably a second or so faster than I was. Never would have made it to the final here either with that time.
This meet is looking like the Eastern European Junior Championships.
Most 16 year olds would love to go 47.5 in yards
If you talk about phenomenal swim for Lekic and destroying lifetime best for Filiz.
David Koutny had personal best before this meet 3:56,76 from mid-june (Czech nationals) and was 17th in the entries (now bronze medal and time 3:51,06). Great race for all of them. 😉
Overall very poor level so far apart from a few stars (Popovici, Tuncel, Pilato). Men’s 400 free and women’s 400 IM were painfully slow. I guess due to the pandemic the results this year don’t have much meaning at junior level.