While Turkey enjoyed its best ever day at a major age-group swimming event by collecting a gold, a silver and a bronze medal, it was Romania’s David Popovici who had the biggest blast on the opening day of the European Junior Swimming Championships in Rome.
Popovici clocked 47.56sec over the
first leg of the free relay to set a new junior WR, grabs the 4th spot in the
senior world ranks in 2021. Popovici already hit the fifth gear in the morning
as he swum 48.32 in the first leg in the relay, a new Championship Record, but
in the evening session he stormed to a new junior World Record (bettered
Russia’s Andrei Minakov’s previous best by 0.01sec) and even more importantly,
with this time he sits on the 4th place in the senior world ranks in 2021. This
effort would also have earned him the bronze medal at the European Aquatics
Championships in May in Budapest. All in all, it’s the 18th best time ever and
the 10th best-ever in textile.
The advantage he built over the first
leg was almost enough to earn the gold for the Romanian relay as the other
swimmers could barely go under 50sec and few could produce 49sec or better
splits. But in the homecoming leg Vladimir Reznichenko came up with a fine
48.90sec swim and secured the title for the Russians, 0.27sec ahead of the
Romanians who could hold off the Polish by 0.03sec for the silver.
In fact, that was the only final
without a Turkish medallist as the other three all brought some silverware for
the nation. Batuhan Filiz kicked off the party with a great win in the men’s
400m free, ahead of Jovan Lekic of Bosnia-Hercegovina – a rare pairing for the
1-2 positions in swimming but development programmes all over Europe seem to
start bearing fruits in more and more countries.
Soon Deniz Ertan finished runner-up
in the women’s 400m IM – a great feat as unlike her rivals, she also had an
800m free in the morning (came third but the other two Turks finished ahead of
her so she couldn’t make the final). Still, she finished strong to gain silver
despite falling behind in the middle of the race. Catching Kathie Shanahan was
never a realistic option as the Brit was dominant throughout the race and won
easily. Anastasia Sorokina delivered a bronze for Russia from lane 1.
And Ertan was part of Turkey’s bronze
medal winning 4x200m free relay in the last event of the session. They needed
some ‘help’ from the Italians whose erroneous takeover cost them the third
place. Here Hungary regained the top spot after a smaller break: the Magyars
claimed three triumphs in a row between 2016 and 2018, did not make the podium
in 2019, but came back strong for this edition. Their balance was amazing, all
four swimmers clocked 2min splits with a couple of tenths in difference and no
others could match those efforts, Russia came a distant second to clinch
another relay medal.
Quotes
Batuhan Filiz (TUR), winner of the
400m free “I’m overjoyed about my result, this is my first gold and I’m really
happy to win it here in Rome. It’s the first time I’ve raced in this pool.
Also, this is a personal best for me, a fine confirmation of getting in a good
shape for the Olympics.”
Katie Shanahan (GBR), winner of the
400m IM “I’m really happy about today’s victory, I’ve done my best. I really
didn’t expect to win. I’m excited to swim in this pool, it is the first time
for me. Now I have to focus on the 200m IM on Friday.”
David Popovici (ROU), silver in the
4x100m free, set new junior WR “I’ve been in Rome before, so I’m happy to be
back and to clock this time and also to sign a new relay record and a medal
with my teammates.”
Bettina Fabian (HUN), gold in the
4x200m free relay “Quite a way to start these championships! We didn’t expect
this result and we especially didn’t expect to win and especially not by that
big margin. We worked hard to get here and I think everyone gave her best, so
all of us can be really proud of ourselves.”
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