Gastaldello Closes Out 2025 Euro Meet With Top-Ranked 100 Free

2025 LUXEMBOURG EURO MEET

• Friday, January 31st – Sunday, February 2nd
• Centre National Sportif et Culturel d’Coque, Luxembourg
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

The 2025 Luxembourg Euro Meet wrapped up last night but not before 29-year-old French Olympian Beryl Gastaldello clinched her 5th gold of the competition.

After registering victories in the women’s 50m/100m back, 50m fly and 50m free through the first two days, Gastaldello topped the 100m free to close out her campaign.

Gastaldello stopped the clock at a speedy 53.92 as the sole swimmer under the 54-second barrier.

Next to the wall was Italian Sofia Morini who scored silver in 54.56 while teammate Chiara Tarantino rounded out the podium in 54.94.

Splitting 26.18/27.74, Gastaldello’s effort was within striking distance of her best-ever, an outing of 53.40 from over 4 years ago.

Just as with the 50m backstroke, Gastaldello now ranks #1 in the world in this women’s 1free this season.

Dutchman Sean Niewold was the fastest men’s 100m freestyler, posting a gold medal-worthy result of 49.13.

That held a healthy advantage over Ukraine’s Illia Linnyk who touched in 49.59 for silver followed by Italy’s Leonardo Deplano who bagged the bronze in 49.73.

22-year-old Niewold logged a big-time personal best of 48.13 in this event last June to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games at the 11th hour. In Paris, Niewold placed 23rd with a prelim swim of 48.82.

The men’s and women’s 100m breast races were also a part of the final day’s action.

On the men’s side, Germany’s Melvin Imoudu, last night’s 50m breast winner, doubled up for gold in the longer sprint. Imoudu hit a time of 1:00.19 to clear the field by over half a second.

Italy’s Alessandro Pinzuti captured silver in 1:00.81 and Simone Cerasuolo, also of Italy, claimed 3rd place in 1:01.23.

Of note, the reigning Olympic champion in this event, Nicolo Martinenghi, was disqualified in the final after producing 1:01.49 in the morning heats.

Kara Hanlon grabbed another gold, winning the women’s 1breast in 1:07.36. The Brit held off Canadian Shona Branton who touched in 1:07.77 ahead of Italy’s Arianna Castiglioni who also landed on the podium in 1:01.23 for bronze. This was the same trio who finished in the same order during last night’s 50m breast final.

Additional Notes

• Danish swimmer Helena Rosendahl Bach finished the competition with another top swim, claiming 400m free gold in 4:15.62.
• The men’s 400m free saw France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier top the podium in 3:54.49 to beat the field by over a second.
• French swimmer Bertille Cousson was too quick to catch in the women’s 200m back, claiming victory in 2:12.82.
• France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard turned in two gold medal-worthy performances in the 200m IM and 200m back. In the former, the 24-year-old Olympian registered 2:03.58 while in the latter he produced 1:58.92 for the victory.
• Cyrielle Duhamel of France put up a time of 2:13.84 to reap gold in the women’s 200m IM followed by 15-year-old Amalie Smith who turned in 2:14.57. British teammate Phoebe Cooper collected bronze in 2:15.12. Smith had earlier logged a new British Age Record in the 400m IM. Her effort here in the shorter distance is creeping up on Olympic medalist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor‘s British Age Record of 2:13.26 notched over 13 years ago.