XV SUMMER EUROPEAN YOUTH OLYMPIC FESTIVAL
- Monday, July 22nd – Friday, July 26th (swimming)
- Baku Aquatics Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Results
- Live Stream
Day of the 2019 Europan Youth Olympic Festival saw 15-year-0ld Beril Boecekler continue her assault on the Turkish National Record books from the European Junior Championships.
At the meet in Kazan, we saw the freestyle ace nail 3 new national standards, producing times of 4:10.41 in the 400m free, 8:34.56 in the 800m free and 16:21.39 in the 1500m free. She collected silver in the latter 2 races.
Boecekler landed on the podium tonight here in Baku in the 400m, firing off the first sub-4:10 outing of her young career in 4:09.71. That proved good enough to establish a new EYOF meet record.
Boecekler’s finals swim beat the competition handily this evening, with British teen Freya Colbert touching over 6 seconds back in 4:16.58, while Russia’s Margarita Varulnikova finished in 4:17.15 for bronze.
Had the Turk hit this 4:09.71 mark a couple of weeks ago in Kazan, she would have walked away with European Junior Championship silver.
For perspective, Boecekler’s time tonight would rank as the 12th fastest performance in history by an American aged 15 or 16.
We’ll see what Boecekler has in store as this meet rolls on through Friday.
She has been a pioneer for her age group in Turkey. A lot of youngsters now shoot for the Olympics and not scared to dream it after Beril made it look like a cake. Turkey is making big moves with their younger generations lately. Excited to witness what’s next
Amazing swim from Beril. Gjon Shyti is doing amazing things with these young ladies!