European Junior Championships, Day 2 Prelims recap

2018 LEN EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Mäkelänrinne Swimming Centre, Helsinki, Finland
• Wednesday, July 4th – Sunday, July 8th (swimming)
• LCM
• Meet Site
• Entry List
• Live Stream
• Live Results

After the first day, Russia leads the game of thrones with three gold, one silver and one bronze medal ahead of Hungary with also three gold but only one bronze medal. On day 1, Hungary’s Ajna Kesely was victorious in the 400m IM and 800m freestyle. Kesely won five gold medals at the 2017 edition of the championships and has good chances to repeat this result.

Kesely had a relatively-relaxed Thursday morning in Helsinki with only one start in the 400m freestyle. She qualified third to the final with a time of 4:15,49 (personal-best time: 4:05,61) behind Germany’s Isabel Gose (4:13,28) and Austria’s Marlene Kahler (4:14,23). Kesely and Gose will also start at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow. Gose (born 09 May, 2002) is one of Germany’s most promising youngsters, her personal-best time in the 400m freestyle stands at 4:10,00.

Federico Burdisso and Kristof Milak got the job done in the men’s 200m butterfly with the two fastest times in the preliminaries. Burdisso was clocked at 1:58,74 ahead of Milak (1:59,39). Milak, World Junior Record hoder in the 200m butterfly, sits currently on top of the 2018 FINA World Ranking.

Russia’s Anastasia Makarova made a huge improvement in the women’s 200m breaststroke for the top seed, clocking a time of 2:27,63. The 15-year old bettered her previous best time by nearly 8 seconds. Three more swimmers were under 2.30: Thea Blomberg (DEN) 2:28,27, Alena Chekhovshkik (RUS) 2:28,46 and Italy’s Letizia Memo in 2:39,36.

Three men were sub 50 seconds in the 100m freestyle: Israel’s Tomer Frankel set the pace in 49,80 followed by Andrei Minakov (RUS, 49,82) and Jakub Kraska (POL, 49,93).

OTHER PRELIMS RESULTS

• Russia’s Maksim Stupin was the fastest in the 200m IM. He led the men’s event in 2:01,73.
• Russia won the men’s and the women’s 4x100m freestyle relays yesterday. They also made it with the fastest time into tonight’s 4×100 mixed freestyle final ahead of Germany and Hungary. Germany’s Maya Tobehn set a 54,80 as the anchor yesterday in the 4 x 100 m freestyle to secure the silver medal for the German ladies. The 16-year old added a 55,26 today as the anchor of the mixed relay. Andrei Minakov was the fastest man as the start swimmer of the Russian relay in 49,46.