There were only three gold medals awarded on what was a thin night 4 of the European Olympic Festival in Tbilsi, Georgia, with Hannah Brunzell and Marton Barta taking individual titles.
The European Youth Olympic Festival fields a group of girls ages 13-14 and boys ages 15-16, with night 4’s mixed relay featuring two athletes from each gender and age group.
Sweden’s Brunzell won the first gold medal of the night, going 1:10.66 to win the girls 100 breast. That won the event by over half a second, but was still far from the crazy meet record of 1:07.96 set by now-world-record-holder Ruta Meilutyte back in 2011.
Later in the night, Marton Barta would dominate the boys 400 IM, continuing Hungary’s traditional prowess in the IM races. Barta took over with a huge breaststroke split of 1:15.7 and never looked back, going 4:24.73 for the win. That was almost four seconds ahead of the field.
He beat Spain’s Hugo de Oliveira, who had swept the backstroke races earlier in the meet.
Spain would earn gold in the next race, though, with their mixed 4×100 free relay going 3:38.28. That included a 50.70 from Alex Fernandez and the two best girls’ splits of the field – a 57.40 from Andrea Rodriguez and a 57.41 from Nadia Oliveira.
Johannes Hinzte used the best split of the boys field to push Germany to second in 3:38.41. He nearly ran down Oliveira with his 49.70 split.
