Vladyslav Bukhov Pops 21.52 Prelims 50 Free On Day 2 Of European U23 champs

2025 LEN U23 European Championships

• Thursday, June 26 – Saturday, June 28
• X-bionic® sphere Pool, Šamorín, Slovakia
• LCM (50m)
• Start Times – Local: Prelims – 9:30 am / Finals – 6:00 pm
• Start Times – EST: Prelims – 2:30 am / Finals – 11:00 am
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Livestream (Pay-To-Watch)
• Recaps: Day 1 Prelims
• Live Recaps: Day 1 Finals

Vladyslav Bukhov threw down a serious statement of intent in the heats of the men’s 50 free this morning in Slovakia, rocketing to his third-fastest time ever in 21.52 as the only swimmer under 22 seconds.

That’s a quarter of a second faster than the 2024 world champion was at last Summer’s Olympic Games, however, his best time is from the semifinals in Doha and stands at 21.38.

He now ranks 5th in the world so far this year, having previously ranked outside the top-25 with his season best of 21.97.

The final is stacked behind him. David Popovici took lane 5 for tonight in 22.02 one day after obliterating the field in the 200 free last night in 1:43.64. He broke the Romanian National Record earlier this year in 21.83, the second-fastest best time of anyone in the field for tonight.

It took a time of 22.33 to make the final, with Olympians Diogo Ribeiro (22.19), Jere Hribar (22.09) and Alex Cohoon (22.31) are joined by Cal commit Martin Wrede (22.27) and Florida’s SEC freshman of the year Alex Painter (22.33). Four of those swimmers are either in the NCAA or will be next year.

It wasn’t only the men’s side that saw some rapid sprint performances. Milou van Wijk blasted to a time of 24.38 to lead the women into tonight’s final by nearly seven-tenths of a second, with Great Britain’s Darcy Revitt taking the second seed in 25.06

Van Wijk set her best of 24.29 just two weeks ago at the Dutch Championships, and will be on the Netherlands’ roster for Singapore later this summer. That ranked her 5th all-time among Dutch women in the event.

Other Day 1 Prelims Highlights:

• Luka Mladenovic, last night’s runaway 50 breast winner, snuck into the final of the 200 breast by just 0.02 in 2:13.63. Croatia’s Filip Mujan leads the way after knocking more than a second off his entry time to go 2:11.23, and is the top seed tonight by nearly a second and a half with the rest of the final separated by less than a second.
• World Junior record holder and runner up in last night’s 200 Peter Mitsin took first place in the heats of the men’s 400 free. His swim of 3:49.47 was the only time under 3:51, with Attila Kovacs (3:51.89) and Tyler Melbourne-Smith (3:52.07) on either side of him for tonight. Mitsin holds a best of 3:44.31 from 2023.
• Eneli Jefimova was the only woman under 1:08 in the 100 breaststroke this morning as she looks to back up her victory in the 50 yesterday. She set the Estonian record of 1:05.81 earlier this year, and will be challenged tonight by Kotryna Teterevkova (1:08.16) and Sweden’s Olivia Klint Ipsa (1:08.58)
• Francesco Lazzarri scorched to a time of 24.77 in the men’s 50 backstroke, hacking over half a second off his entry. Three British men made the top eight, with Jack Skerry (25.11) and 200 backstroke bronze medalist Cam Brooker (25.26) making it through while Matt Ward (25.28) was left on the outside looking in due to the max-two-per-country rules for finals.