2021 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 6th – Sunday, July 11th
- Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
- Heats at 9:30am local (3:30am EST)/Finals at 6pm local (Noon EST)
- LCM (50m)
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- Recaps: Day 1 Finals/Day 2 Finals/Day 3 Finals/Day 4 Finals/Day 5 Finals
One of our ‘5 Racers to Watch’ at these European Junior Championships was back at it, as 16-year-old Merve Tuncel of Turkey clocked a new national record en route to winning the women’s 400m free.
After establishing herself as the top-seeded swimmer with a morning prelim result of 4:12.22, the Gjon Shyti-trained freestyle ace ripped a lifetime best of 4:06.25.
Splitting 59.22/1:02.48/1:01.87/1:02.68, Tuncel’s 4:06.25 here took the 400m free national record from Beril Boecekler, who previously held it in 4:06.68 from February. Boecekler, who is committed to UCLA, finished 4th here in 4:14.38, well off that previous record-setting mark.
Tuncel already topped the 800m and 1500m freestyle podiums in Rome here, busting out marks of 8:21.91 and 15:55.23, respectively. Both of these longer distance results checked in as new European Junior Records.
Her 400m free now ranks the teen 18th in the world this season, tying Germany’s Leonie Kullmann. For additional perspective, among all American women aged 15-16, Tuncel would rank #3 on the all-time list, only behind Olympic gold medalists Katie Ledecky and Janet Evans.
Tuncel owns the World Junior Record in the SCM 1500 freestyle.
She has a fantastic range(400 to 1500) and strangely, she has only 2:00 in 200free.
She was 1:59.7 in the 200 free twice earlier this year.
I think that’s largely just opportunity. She didn’t swim the 200 free at either meet where she swam her two best 400 frees, for example.
Still…is high time for an 8.21 and 15.55 swimmer.
Probably too conservative…swimming it like a distance race
No, I think it depends on swimmer characteristics (huge pace and endurance, not so huge “easy speed”), like Quadarella, for instance, and other mid-long distance specialists. Tuncel swam the 200 free in Rome at these EuroJunior Champs and swam 2.00.11. And then she swam the 400 free ( in the last day of competition) and turned at 200 m in 2.01.70. This little difference can be seen also in the 800 free, where she turned at 400 m in 4.08.83, only two seconds and a half slower her big time (PB) in the 400 free.
It is related with her body shape, she has disadvantages for short distances