Russia’s Kolesnikov Claims Second World Junior Record At Euro Juniors

2016 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, July 6 – Sunday, July 10, 2016
• Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary
• Prelims 9:30AM / Finals 5:30PM (Local Time: UTC+2)
• Meet website
• Live Stream
• Start Lists and Live Results

The 2016 European Championships continued today in Hungary, highlighted by a shiny new World Junior Record on the men’s side. In the semi-finals of the 50m backstroke, Russian swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov fired off a swift 25.02 to notch the top seed, as well as overtake the previous WJR of 25.09 held by countryman Evgeny Rylov since the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

By the end of the night, Kolesnkiov would lower his newly-minted mark even further, ultimately racing to gold in a wicked-fast 24.94, the first time a junior swimmer has ventured into sub-25-second territory. Kolesnikov was followed by Hugo Gonzalez De Oliveira from Spain, who nabbed silver in 25.31, followed by Grecian swimmer Nikolaos Sofianidis who earned bronze in 25.44.

This is Kolesnikov’s 2nd World Junior Record of the meet, as he already scored a new 100m backstroke record in a time of 53.65.

For his part, Oliveira went on to win the 200m backstroke event, wrangling in a time of 1:57.00 to beat the field by almost an entire second. His performance today equals his career-best time he threw down back in April at the Spanish Olympic Trials.

Victor Johansson claimed the win in the men’s 800m freestyle final, giving Sweden gold with his field-topping time of 7:56.64. He was able to hold off a surging Brit in Tom Derbyshire, who wound up with the silver in a time of 7:58.78 after already having won the 1500m event earlier in the meet.

Hungary saw one of its own win the women’ 200m freestyle, with Ajna Kesely snatching up the win in the women’s 200m freestyle. Her time of 1:57.96 resulted in a new Championship Record and a new personal best, topping her previous best time of 1:58.06 from earlier this month. At the 2015 European Games, no swimmer dipped beneath the 1:58-second threshold in this women’s event, so the bar has indeed been raised.

Russia’s Polina Egorova retained her 100m butterfly title from the 2015 European Games, taking the race once again here in Hungary. 59.00 is what it took to get the job done this year, a solid .36 of a second faster than her previous performance in Baku. Egorova already won the 50m backstroke last night and bronze in the women’s 200m backstroke earlier in the meet. The silver and bronze medalists this year in the 100m butterfly were also beneath the minute mark, as Hungary’s Petra Barocsai and Britain’s Laura Stephens collected times of 59.87 and 59.94, respectively.

Russia also retained its 2016 European Games title in the women’s splash n’ dash, as Mariia Kameneva touched first in the women’s 50m freestyle for the 2nd year in a row. Whereas Kameneva earned a time of 25.23 in 2015, she took the win today in a mark of 25.02, a new Championship Record.

Additional Winners/Top Seeds:

• Women’s 100m backstroke semi-final – Russia’s Ksenia Vasilenok has top seed in 1:01.63.
• Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final – Russia’s Roman Shevliakov owns the top spot in 52.65, tied with Spain’s Alberto Lozano Mateos.
• Women’s 200m IM semi-final – Italy holds the top 2 seeds heading into finals, with Illaria Cusinato on top in 2:14.42, followed by Sara Franceschi in 2:14.60.
• Men’s 200m freestyle saw Moldova’s Alexei Sancov take the top seed in 1:49.38 with 2 other swimmers notching sub-1:50 marks in semi’s.
• Women’s 100m breaststroke – Giulia Verona of Italy clocked the swiftest semi swim with a time of 1:08.51.
• Men’s 100m breaststroke – Italy also tops the men’s 100m breaststroke semi, with Nicolo Martinenghi ahead of the field with his mark of 1:00.71.
• Italy claimed gold in the mixed 4 x 100 medley relay, notching a time of 3:50.75.