Poland Takes First Gold Of EYOF With Chowaniec’s 50 Free Victory

XV SUMMER EUROPEAN YOUTH OLYMPIC FESTIVAL

Day 4 of the 2019 Europan Youth Olympic Festival saw the nation of Poland snag its first gold medal, courtesy of Mateusz Chowaniec‘s field-topping time of 22.91 in the men’s 50m free. Hitting the wall in the only sub-23 second mark of the field, the 15-year-old fired off the fastest time of his career, surpassing the 23.21 he produced just earlier this month domestically.

Runner-up went to yesterday’s 100m free winner David Popovici, with the Romanian slicing .26 off of his lifetime best with a new mark of 23.03. Dutch speedster Tim Korstanje, younger brother of Nyls Korstanje who races for NC State in the NCAA, collected bronze in 23.08.

14-year-old Jacob Whittle of Great Britain followed up his 100m free silver with a 4th place finish here in a time of 23.25, although he was 23.11 in the semi-final.

Beril Boecekler of Turkey continues to make her mark on this meet, following up her 400m free victory with a 200m free gold tonight. The 15-year-old punched a time of 2:00.62 to take the win over a charging Freya Colbert of Great Britain.

For the Turk, her time tonight destroys her previous personal best of 2:02.69 from April of this year, as well as the 2:03.52 she put up in Kazan at the European Junior Championships just weeks ago. In fact, Boecekler’s 2:00.62 podium topper tonight checks-in as a new Turkish National Record overtaking her temmate Gizem Guvenc’s time of 2:01.36 logged in Kazan.

Russia’s Aleksandra Sabitova improved upon her newly-minted 100m fly EYOF Record from last night’s semi-final to produce a winning time of 59.07. She represented just 1 of 2 sub-minute swimmers in the final, with Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk securing silver in 59.33. Germany’s Amelie Zachenhuber took bronze in 1:00.01.

Another EYOF Record went down courtesy of Sabitova’s teammate Aleksei Tkachev. The man produced a time of 2:01.24 to knock .03 off of his semi-leading time from last night, giving him the gold less than half a second ahead of runner-up Berke Saka of Turkey. Saka touched in 2:01.62, while Poland’s Filip Kosinski rounded out the podium in 2:01.62 for bronze.

Russia also collected gold in the mixed medley relay, notching a time of 3:52.27.

Notable Semi-Finals:

  • Erika Francesca Gaetani of Italy sits as the #1 seed headed into tomorrow night’s 100m back final, holding a time of 1:01.98. She took the silver medal at this year’s Euro Juniors in a time of 1:01.62.
  • The women’s 100m breast has Evgenia Chikunova headed to lane 4, rocking a semi swim of 1:08.91.
  • Yesterday’s 200m fly silver medalist Edward Mildred of Great Britain is right near his 200m free personal best of 1:51.30 already, clocking 1:51.66 to lead the men’s 200m free.
  • Katie Shanahan already won the women’s 200m backstroke here and is hoping to make it 2-for-2 with a 200m IM gold. She took the top seed in 2:15.61.

 

Swimming Medal Table Through Day 4:

RANK COUNTRY Gold Silver Bronze TOTAL RANK BY TOTAL
1  Russian Federation 10 2 1 13 1
2  Great Britain 4 7 1 12 2
3  Turkey 2 2 3 7 3
4  Croatia 2 0 0 2 9
5  Italy 1 1 1 3 7
6  Romania 1 1 0 2 9
7  Poland 1 0 3 4 5
8  Hungary 0 4 1 5 4
9  Germany 0 1 3 4 5
10  France 0 1 2 3 7
11  Belgium 0 1 0 1 11
11  Ukraine 0 1 0 1 11
13  Israel 0 0 1 1 11
13  Netherlands 0 0 1 1 11
13  Ireland 0 0 1 1 11
13  Denmark 0 0 1 1 11
13  Greece 0 0 1 1 11
13  Spain 0 0 1 1 11

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Beata Gawin
4 years ago

❤️🇵🇱💪🏻🥇

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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