Italy’s Martinenghi On Course For More 50 Breast Magic In Netanya

2017 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Netanya, Israel
• June 28th – July 2nd
• Psych Sheets
• Meet central
• Live Stream
• Results

After two days of competition in Netanya, Israel, the nation of Russia took over the overall medal standings, although they are tied with Hungary with 2 gold medals each. Today, young guns across both those nations and beyond stepped up to make their presence known in the bid for European Junior Championship titles.

First up was Russian Daria Vaskina who notched the top time in the women’s 50m backstroke prelim. She clocked a time of 28.55, one of 5 28-point efforts among the entire field gunning for pole position during tonight’s semi-final.

The men’s backstroke field contested the 200m distance this morning, with Czech swimmer Tomas Ludvik earning the fastest AM effort in 2:00.01. However, last year’s gold medalist, Kliment Kolesnikov of Russia, lurks in the 3rd seed in a casual 2:01.03.

Italy’s world junior record holder Nicolo Martinenghi fired off a speedy 27.23 50m breaststroke mark to set himself apart from the field. He was the only sub-28 swimmer on the morning, breaking the old meet record of 27.39 held by Alexander Triznov since 2009. Martinenghi’s WJR sits at the 26.97 he produced earlier this year, so he’s well on his way to strike down that standard.

Women’s 200m freestyle racers saw Anja Kesely rise to the top, as the Hungarian notched 1 of 2 sub-2 minute times on the morning. Last year’s winner in 1:57.96, Kesely earned a time today of 1:59.26. Kesely has already won the 400m and 800m freestyle races at this meet, so she’ll be eager to compete her freestyle trifecta. Russia’s Irina Krivonogova was the other 1:59 swimmer, collecting a time of 1:59.83. The Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen, who won gold in the 100m freestyle yesterday, also made semi-finals in the 8th seeded spot in a time of 2:02.57.

The top 9 women in the 100m butterfly are all within a second of one another, with Russia’s Polina Egorova at the top. Her mark of 1:00.03 was .4 ahead of two roaring Swedes situated 2nd and 3rd headed into tonight’s semi-finals. Possibly a glimpse into who may carry Sarah Sjostrom’s fly torch later in the future, Swedes Hanna Rosvall and Sara Juvenik earned morning times of 1:00.43 an 1:00.58, respectively.