Stancu keeps the hosts on the golden track, first title for Germany and Belgium LEN European Junior Swimming Championships, Bucharest (ROU) – Day 3

 

Not only David Popovici can deliver gold for the hosts at the home European Junior Swimming Championships. While the home hero swam only a semi-final on the third day, team-mate Vlad-Stefan Stancu came up with a brilliantly built 1500m swim to generate some noise again on the packed stands. The session also saw the first titles for Germany and Belgium respectively, while the Turks claimed their third, thanks to Yigit Oktar’s impressive win in the men’s 200m IM. Hungary’s Nikoletta Padar bagged her third gold here, now she anchored the women’s 4x200m free relay to a fifth victory in the last six editions.

Though this day was intended to be relatively calmer since David Popovici took part only in a semi-final – qualified in the first place to the 50m free final –, still, the home crowd had a lot to cheer for. First, Bianca Costea ended up on the podium in the women’s 50m free as she hit the wall 0.12sec behind Nina Jazy who delivered the Germans’ first gold here. The place was still noisy, the stands weren’t as packed as a day before, still, almost 1,500 fans attended the session and created a great atmosphere.

Then later in the session, the shortest distance was followed by the longest one, and Vlad-Stefan Stancu’s brilliant victory. It was a magnificent duel between him and Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski. The Polish, winner of the 200m fly, held on for almost 1200m, they turned parallel for every lap, but then Chmielewski couldn’t react on Stancu’s switching gears. To the joy of the crowd, the Romanian sailed away while building an 8sec winning gap by the end.

Turkey’s Yigit Oktar did a clean job while winning the men’s 200m IM, gained almost two seconds on Italy’s Simone Spediacci. The women’s 100m fly produced much more excitements, title-holder Lana Pudar of Bosnia-Hercegovina seemed to be on her way to another gold, but Roos Vanotterdijk came up with a tremendous finish, managed to pass her over the last 25m. Pudar made a last big push, but the Belgian still had it, by 0.03sec.

In the session-ending women’s 4x200m relay the Hungarians retained their title – indeed, apart from 2019, this event belongs to them as they won it five times in the last six editions since 2016. Still, their dominance has never been so overwhelming as it was this time when they gained 9.87sec on the Italians. Their anchor, Nikoletta Padar bagged her third gold here in as many days.

 

Quotes

Yigit Oktar (TUR), gold, 200m IM

“I was so nervous before the race but now I’m very much relieved. I trained so hard for this event, so many people and the federation did so many things to support me so I really felt I must deliver here. I think the swim was more or less fine, my breaststroke was a bit shaky, I didn’t feel the rhythm but once I turned to the free, my confidence came back, I looked around, I saw I was still leading and now here I’m, the European champion. It’s great, it’s a relief for me.”

 

Nina Jazy (GER), gold, 50m free

“I’m super happy right now! Deep in my mind I had a thought that it would be great today – and I made it! I think my swim was good, the start, the speed, the finish, everything.”

 

Roos Vanotterdijk (BEL), gold, 100m fly

“I usually don’t start so strong, relying more on my second 50m. I didn’t look around, I didn’t know where Lana (Pudar) was swimming, I focused only on myself, on my swim. Well, this has been a hard year for me so far, I did not come here with big expectations. Then yesterday I felt really good, for the first time in the season, and I thought, OK, that might be a personal best, or something nice. But winning, it didn’t cross my mind, so I’m really happy now.”

 

Vlad-Stefan Stancu (ROU), gold, 1500m free

“The race was planned and built according to our plans. I knew that if I could switch gears as expected, then I would win this race, though I didn’t know how the others would react. I’m happy that I succeeded like this. It was amazing to compete here, in my hometown, in front of our fans, it was fantastic!”

 

Nikoletta Padar (HUN), gold, 4x200m free relay

“Our main goal was to set a new national record, which is also the Championship Record from 2017, but we missed it by a tiny margin of five hundredths. Still, I think we all gave our utmost so I’m really proud of the girls. It was a great swim, I’m feeling nothing but fatigue – and of course happiness!”