2022 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 5th – Sunday, July 10th
- Otopeni Olympic Swimming Complex, Bucharest, Romania
- LCM (50m)
- Start Times
- Prelims: 10 a.m. local / 3 a.m. ET
- Finals: 5 p.m. local / 10 a.m. ET
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Live Results
- Live Stream
Highlighting night 5 of the European Junior Championships was Italy’s Lorenzo Galossi who won gold in the boys 800 freestyle about 15 minutes before anchoring Italy to gold in the boys 4×200 freestyle relay. Galossi spoke of the double saying, “Of course, I felt nothing but pain, but when I saw that it was about winning the relay, I forgot everything, just swam for the team and I’m really happy that we could finish the day like this.”
He also spoke of the excitement to swim for Italy saying, “when you are requested to swim for your country, you are doing your utmost, and it doesn’t matter how tired you are.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Lana Pudar who won the girls 200 butterfly in a 2:08.92. She was the only girl under the 2:10 mark as well. Pudar is no stranger to the event after finishing sixth in it only a few weeks ago at the 2022 World Championships.
Pudar spoke of the execution of the plan she made for the race saying, “It all went according to plans. I made long strokes, built a big lead, and won at the end – this how I wanted to do this race.” Pudar also said she loves the distance of the 200 butterfly and that she “really wanted to win this after losing the 100m by such a small margin.” Earlier in the meet Pudar finished second in the 100 butterfly by a mere 0.03 seconds.
After winning the girls 200 free earlier in the meet, Nikoletta Padar of Hungary won the girls 100 free in a 54.69. Padar spoke of come worries before the race because “of the French girl and Dori (Molnar), so I pushed hard, and the pain kicked in after the turn.” Padar came home strong after flipping third at the 50 mark and “Still, over the last 50, and especially over the last 25m I was thinking like ‘You trained so hard for this, to achieve big results, so this is the time for you to make it’.”
Padar finished ahead of fellow Hungarian Dora Molnar who was second in a 55.20. Padar was happy with her swim as she set a new personal best and was under the 55 second mark.
Merve Tuncel of Turkey defended her title in the girls 800 freestyle winning in a 8:28.32. She spoke of the feeling to be the defending champion in the event saying, “I also feel some pressure since watching my wins last year, everyone expects me to repeat these victories.”
Tuncel won the event just last week at the Mediterranean Games. She spoke of her packed schedule saying, “I have a lot of challenges, next week the Nationals, then the Islamic Games, the European Championships and the junior Worlds… A lot of events, so I’m really happy that I could win this title too.”
I love the honesty! And, congrats to SS for an eye-catching headline.
Definitely an insane schedule that doesn’t make any sense, this morning 16 ours after this grueling double he seemed quite off in the 400 heats at the end of which he managed to enter the final with the eighth and last time.
Hopefully he can step up in the afternoon
Absolutely love the spirit of these kids! Phenomenal job!