2023 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 4th – Sunday, July 9th
- Sports and Recreational Center “Milan Gale Muškatirović”, Belgrade, Serbia
- Prelims at 10am local (4am EDT)/Finals at 5pm local (11am EDT)
- LCM (50m)
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- Day 1 Prelims Recap |Day 1 Finals Live Recap
This morning’s prelims session at the 2023 European Junior Championships in Belgrade was a short one, featuring just five events. Wednesday morning saw heats of the girls 100 fly, boys 200 IM, girls 50 free, boys 1500 free, and the mixed 4×100 free relay. In tonight’s finals session, there will be semifinals of the girls 100 fly, boys 200 IM, and girls 50 free, while there will be finals of the mixed 4×100 free relay. As for the boys 1500 free, the final of that event will be swum at tomorrow night’s finals session.
Let’s start with the boys 1500 free, where Turkey put on a show this morning. Kuzey Tuncelli led the field this morning with a 15:04.04, which comes in just over seven seconds off his career best of 14:56.67. Tuncelli clocked his Pb back in April at the Turkish National Championship. He started off holding under 1:00 per 100m for the first 500m this morning, but then settled into mid-1:00s and eventually low-1:01s for the remainder of the race.
Right behind Tuncelli was Turkish teammate Emir Batur Albayrak, who was the only other swimmer to go under 15:10, touching in 15:09.40. As was the case with his teammate, Albayrak was just off his career best, which comes in at 15:06.24. Turkey also saw Muhammed Yusuf Ozden come in fifth this morning with a 15:24.11, however, he won’t be in the final tomorrow night, as Turkey already has two swimmers in the final with Tuncelli and Albayrak.
In the mixed 4×100 free relay, Italy led this morning’s prelims session with a 3:32.25. Though Hungary was very close behind, Italy has to be the favorite in the final tonight. The Italians won both the boys and girls 4×100 free relays last night, so a combination of the two should favor them greatly. It will likely be a completely different relay for Italy tonight, so they potentially be considerably faster.
Italy’s Sara Curtis, who did not swim on the mixed 4×100 free relay this morning, led the heats of the girls 50 free, swimming a 25.32. Curtis led by a considerable margin, as it was Great Britain’s Skye Carter who came in second this morning with a 25.69. For Curtis, that time comes in just off her personal best of 25.14, which she swam at the Italian National Championships back in April of this year.
Slovakia put up a strong showing in the girls 50 free this morning, seeing Lillian Slusna and Alexandra Hrncarova take third and fourth respectively with times of 25.73 and 25.80.
In the boys 200 IM, Germany’s Finn Wendland put up a 2:02.36 to clock the top time of the morning. He swam a very well-rounded race, splitting 26.25 on fly, 31.74 on back, 34.28 on breast, and 30.09 on free. Italy’s Christian Mantegazza was close behind, coming in second this morning with a 2:02.73.
The girls 100 fly saw Denmark’s Martine Damborg clock a 59.30 to lead the way in the heats. She led Lana Pudar of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who came in second with a 59.50. Pudar is the BIH Record holder in the 100 fly with her lifetime best of 57.27, so we’ll see how she looks in the semifinal tonight. Meanwhile, Damborg has been as fast as 58.43 before in this event, so it would seem she still has more to give as well.
Switzerland’s Julia Ullmann was the only other swimmer to go under 1:00 this morning, taking third with a 59.81.
