European Junior Championships Preview

European Junior Championships – Dordrecht, Netherlands – July 9th-13th, 2014

Links

• The official competition page can be found here
• The live results can be found here

Schedule

• Heats – 8:45 am local (2:45 am EST)
• Finals – 5:15 pm local (11:15 am EST)

Wednesday July 9th 

Prelims

• Women’s – 50 breaststroke, 100 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 400 IM, 200 backstroke, 4 x 100 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle slow heats
• Men’s – 50 butterfly, 400 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 4 x 100 freestyle relay
• IPC – Women’s 100 freestyle, Men’s 100 backstroke

Semi-finals

• Women’s – 50 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 100 freestyle, 200 backstroke
• Men’s – 50 butterfly, 200 breaststroke, 100 backstroke

Finals

• Women’s – 400 IM, 50 breaststroke, 800 freestyle, 4 x 100 freestyle relay
• Men’s – 400 freestyle, 50 butterfly, 4 x 100 freestyle relay
• IPC – Women’s 100 freestyle, Men’s 100 backstroke

Thursday July 10th 

Prelims

• Women’s – 400 freestyle, 200 breaststroke
• Men’s – 100 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 200 IM, 1500 freestyle slow heats
• Mixed – 4 x 100 freestyle relay
• IPC – Women’s 100 breaststroke, Men’s 100 freestyle

Semi-finals

• Women’s – 200 breaststroke
• Men’s – 100 freestyle, 200 IM, 200 butterfly

Finals 

• Women’s – 400 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 100 freestyle, 200 backstroke
• Men’s – 100 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 1500 freestyle
• Mixed – 4 x 100 freestyle
• IPC – Women’s 100 breaststroke, Men’s 100 freestyle

Friday July 11th

Prelims

• Women’s – 50 backstroke, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 4 x 100 medley relay, 1500 freestyle slow heats
• Men’s – 50 breaststroke, 200 backstroke, 4 x 200 freestyle relay
• IPC – Women’s 100 butterfly, Men’s 100 breaststroke

Semi-finals

• Women’s – 50 backstroke, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly
• Men’s – 50 breaststroke, 200 backstroke

Finals

• Women’s – 200 breaststroke, 50 backstroke, 1500 freestyle, 4 x 100 medley relay
• Men’s – 200 butterfly, 100 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 breaststroke, 4 x 200 freestyle
• IPC – Women’s 100 butterfly, Men’s 100 breaststroke

Saturday July 12th 

Prelims

• Women’s – 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 IM, 100 breaststroke
• Men’s – 50 backstroke, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke, 800 freestyle slow heats
• Mixed – 4 x 100 medley relay
• IPC – Women’s 100 backstroke, Men’s 100 butterfly

Semi-finals

• Women’s – 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 IM, 100 breaststroke, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 50 freestyle
• Men’s – 50 backstroke, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke

Finals

• Women’s – 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 50 freestyle
• Men’s – 200 backstroke, 800 freestyle, 50 backstroke
• Mixed – 4 x 100 medley relay
• IPC – Women’s 100 backstroke, Men’s 100 butterfly

Sunday July 13th

Prelims

• Women’s – 50 butterfly, 4 x 200 freestyle relay
• Men’s – 50 freestyle, 400 IM, 4 x 100 medley relay
• IPC – Women’s 50 freestyle, Men’s 50 freestyle

Semi-finals

• Women’s – 50 butterfly
• Men’s – 50 freestyle

Finals

• Women’s – 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, 200 IM, 50 butterfly, 4 x 200 freestyle
• Men’s – 400 IM, 100 breaststroke, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 50 freestyle, 4 x 100 medley
• IPC – Women’s 50 freestyle, Men’s 50 freestyle

Ustinovas Look to Collect a Combined 13 Gold

The Russians dominated this event last year and could have two athletes bring home home more than half of the 22 gold they collected in 2013.

Daria S Ustinova will have the opportunity to come home with eight gold. She is going into the 50 and 100 freestyle as the top ranked competitor along with having the third fastest entry time in the 200 freestyle. It can also be assumed that she will compete in the women’s 4 x 100 freestyle, 4 x 200 freestyle and 4 x 100 medley relays along with the mixed 4 x 100 freestyle and 4 x 100 medley relays, which all have a very good chance of collecting gold, something that happen in 2013.

Her biggest threat in her quest for 11 will come from her Russian teammate Arina Openysheva. Openysheva is going into the 200 freestyle as the top ranked swimmer with an entry time of 1:59.73 and in the 100 freestyle has posted a time of 55.38, only 14 one-hundredths of a second slower than Ustinova.

At last year’s European Junior Championships Russian Daria K Ustinova collected five gold (50 backstroke, 100 backstroke, 4 x 100 freestyle, 4 x 100 medley and mixed 4 x 100 medley) She will once . In this year’s event Ustinova is ranked first in the 50, 100 and 200 backstroke. It can also be assumed that she will compete in the women’s 4 x 100 medley relays along with the mixed 4 x 100 medley relays, which all have a very good chance of collecting gold, something that happened in 2013.

It is a pretty safe bet that Ustinova will come away with victories in the three backstroke events, going into the events ranked second in the world in the 200 (2:08.02), fifth in the world in the 100 (59.78) and 11th in the world in the 50 (28.18).

Sedov Looks to Repeat as Sprint King

Evgeny Sedov of Russia walked away from last year’s European Junior Championships with the gold in the 50 and 100 freestyle along with the championship in the 50 butterfly, he will have his sights set on capturing titles in those three events as well as the 50 backstroke in Dordrecht. Sedov is the fastest entrant in all four events. His competitors will be hard pressed to challenge him in the either of the 50 butterfly and freestyle, but the 100 freestyle and 50 backstroke may be a different story.

Sedov has not recorded a time in 2014 for the 100 freestyle and is entered with his lifetime best of 49.23 which he recorded at this meet a year ago. Both Jan Holub of Poland (49.38) and Damian Wierling of Germany (49.65) have both made significant improvements in the last year and could challenge Sedov in the event. Kyle Stolk of the Netherlands won the silver in this event a year ago, but has also not posted a time in 2014 and is entered with his lifetime best of 49.94 from last year’s event.

Sedov was the runner up in the 50 backstroke last year and the win this year will not come any easier as there are five swimmers who have all posted times this year that are within half a second of the Russian. That group is lead by Italian Simone Sabbioni who will aiming at the world junior records in both the 50 and 100 backstroke events.

Exciting Dual in the Distance Events

The men’s distance events could be two of the most captivating races of the competition as Mykhaylo Romanchuk of the Ukraine and Wojciech Wojdak of Poland enter the meet with nearly identical times in both the 800 and 1500 freestyle. Romanchuk is the fastest entrant in both having posted a 7:58.43 in the 800 and 15:09.21 in the 1500 while Wojdak has record a 7:58.45 in the 800 and 15:09.97 in the 1500. It should be very interesting to see where each of these athletes are in their development as Romanchuk’s season’s bests were posted in early February whereas Wojdak’s were recorded in June.