2025 European Junior Championships
- Tuesday, July 1 – Sunday, July 6
- X-bionic® sphere Pool, Šamorín, Slovakia
- LCM (50m)
- Start Times – Local: Prelims – 9:30 am / Finals – 6:00 pm
- Start Times – EST: Prelims – 3:30 am / Finals – 12:00 pm
- Live Results
A deep field presented in the boys’ 200 free, a Hungarian teenager star took control in the girls’ 400 IM, and some patterns mirroring broader national strengths emerged in the first prelims session of the European Junior Championships.
A Deep Boys’ 200 free
16-year-old Tajus Juska led the way in the heats of the boys’ 200 free with a 1:48.24, already just .08 seconds away from his lifetime best done in April. He was half-a-second clear of the field in a deep boys’ 200 free event, with Italian Alberto Ferrazza going a best time to qualify 2nd in 1:48.71.
Juska is the defending European Juniors champion in the 100 free, but didn’t medal in this 200 free last year.
Ferrazza is the newest of a very young crop of good Italian 200 freestylers led by 18-year-old Carlos D’Ambrosio, who swam 1:45.99 over the weekend at the Sette Colli Trophy. The country now has three swimmers born in 2007 who have been 1:49.0-or-better this season.
Those two led a field of 11 swimmers under the 1:50 mark, with France being the only country to get two guys into the A-Final (Italy’s next two best swimmers on Tuesday tied for 9th place in 1:49.73).
Hungarian Star Takes Early Command in 400 IM
Hungary and 400 IM’ers go hand-in-hand, and 16-year-old Vivien Jackl is carrying that torch next. The two-time defending champion cruised to a 4:42.49 top seed in prelims, putting her a second-and-a-half clear of the field.
Her biggest challenge in finals will come from 15-year-old Brit Amalie Smith, one of the country’s top young talents, who swam 4:44.05 in the heats. Smith has been 4:41 this year already; Jackl’s best is a 4:34, but her wins at Euro Juniors have been 4:40 and 4:39, respectively, and Jackl has bigger meets ahead of her later this year.
Jackl also qualified 2nd in the heats of the women’s 1500 free in 16:29.21 in a brutal double. She finished 3rd in that race last year. Italy’s Emma Vitoria Giannelli, who won silver last year, was the top seed in 16:28.33, while the defending champion Amelie Blocksidge was safely through in 5th.
While nobody showed too many cards in heats of the 1500, all three medalists from last year return to fight for the crown in Wednesday’s final.
Turkey Coming on Strong
Turkey has shown a lot of positive results at the junior stages in recent years, and while that hasn’t always bloomed into senior-level medals, they finished 3rd on the Euro Juniors medal table last year and 4th in 2023.
The country is off to a hot start in Samorin with top seeds in two events late in the prelims session.
In the boys’ 50 breast, Azerbaijani-born Nusrat Allavehrdi led a tight field in 27.62. His best time is a 27.20 done at the Acropolis Open in Greece earlier this year, which is only four-tenths shy of Emre Sakci‘s Turkish Record in the event.
Allavehrdi is the defending champion in the event.
Filip Nowicki of Great Britain qualified 2nd in 27.66, with the top five swimmers all being within .21 seconds of each other, setting up a tight field for finals.
In the very next event, the 200 fly, Turkey’s Tuncer Erturk led the way in 1:58.92. This was one of the most veteran fields of the day, with lots of 18-year-olds at the top of the rankings. That includes Poland’s Blazej Dworakowski, who qualified 2nd in 1:59.10.
Dworakowski is looking to continue a strong Polish legacy in this event, with their last title coming via a 1-2 finish from the Chmielewski twins in 2022.
Other Day 1 Prelims Highlights
- Lithuania’s latest breaststroke project Smilte Plytnykaite led heats of the women’s 50 breaststroke in 30.92. That’s already .35 seconds better than her winning time from last year of 31.27. In fact, the top three this year were all under that old winning time: Egle Salu of Estonia in 30.97 and defending bronze medalist Nayara Pineda Lopez of Spain in 31.05. Plytnykaite is a Virginia commit.
- Italy, Great Britain, and Lithuania led the way in heats of the women’s 400 free relay, but Croatian Jana Pavalic put up a big marker to kick off her meet. She swam 55.03 leading off Croatia’s 5th-qualifying relay that took .52 seconds off her previous National Record in the event. She also announced her commitment to the University of Virginia last week, and the defending 50 fly champion at this meet is beginning to flex a little more 100 meter range that will be valuable at the NCAA level.
- Italy, France, and Great Britain led the way in the men’s 400 free relay, with the Italians 2.66 seconds clear as well. One of the world’s top relays at the senior level, Italy is reloading on this relay. Francesco Ceolin (50.30), Daniele del Signore (49.82), Luca Antonio Scampicchio (49.53), and Daniel D’Agostino (49.35) combined for a 4:19.00 in relay in heats. Their three 49-second splits was more than the two that the rest of the field had combined (and one of those two didn’t even make the final). Italy has won the last two 400 free relays at the European Juniors, even with an entirely new foursome from last year.
