2024 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 2nd – Sunday, July 7th
- Lazdynai Pool, Vilnius, Lithuania
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream ($)
The nation of Italy leads the medal table heading into day 2 of the 2024 European Junior Championships but a lot can change over the next 5 days.
Denmark put its hat in the ring this morning, with 17-year-old Martine Damborg topping the girls’ 100m butterfly heats.
The teen clocked a time of 58.94 to land the pole position for tonight’s semi-finals, with a quartet of athletes also getting under the minute mark.
Italy snagged the 2nd and 4th seeds, courtesy of Caterina Santambrogio (59.63) and Anna Porcari (59.89) while Finnish swimmer Aliisa Soini (59.85) and Great Britain’s Hollie Widdows (59.98) joined the sub-minute party.
Last year Damborg grabbed silver in a time of 58.35 behind winner Lana Pudar of Bosnia & Herzegovina, so the Dane is well on her way to producing that caliber of performance this time around.
The men’s 200m IM saw Finn Hammer of Germany take control, notching a mark of 2:02.49 to land the top slot for tonight’s semi-final.
18-year-old Hammer’s lifetime best stands just .20 faster than this morning’s performance. He logged 2:02.29 this past April for 4th place at the German Championships. This morning represents the teen’s 2nd-ever foray under the 2:03 threshold.
Spain’s Nil Cadevall was right behind in 2:02.72 as the 2nd seed while Italy’s Jacopo Barbotti (2:02.77) and Greece’s Iason Routoulas (2:02.94) were also in the 2:02-zone.
17-year-old Sara Curtis of Italy demonstrated her prowess in the girls’ 50m free, dominating the heats in a time of 24.67 to establish a new Championships Record.
Curtis’ time marked the sole outing of the field under 25 seconds and destroyed the previous meet mark of 24.87 Russian Daria Tatarinova put on the books 3 years ago.
Curtis’ AM result fell just .12 outside her senior Italian national record of 24.56 established at March’s Italian Championships. Her performance also easily overtook the 25.14 she posted en route to topping the podium in this event at the 2023 edition of this competition.
Croatia’s Jana Pavalic turned in a time of 25.23 as the 2nd seed. She’s been as fast as 24.67 in her career, the new national record she established at last month’s senior European Championships.
Germany’s Julianna Dora Bocska (25.52) and a pair of British swimmers, Theodora Taylor (25.53) and Skye Carter (25.57) are also in the medal-contending mix.
Additional Top Seeds
- Turkish phenom Kuzey Tuncelli clocked a time of 15:09.73 to land lane 4 for tomorrow evening’s 1500m freestyle final. He’ll be flanked on one side by German Johannes Liebmann who registered 15:20.24 as the next closest competitor. The other side will see Turkish teammate Muhammed Yusef Ozden try to make it a 1-2 finish in the main event, holding the 3rd seed in 15:19.16. 16-year-old Tuncelli is the fastest Turkish swimmer in history in the 1500m, possessing a lifetime best of 14:54.16 from last year’s European Youth Olympic Festival.
- Italy is seeking its 3rd relay victory, claiming the top seed out of the morning heats of the mixed 4x100m free relay. Last night the nation grabbed gold in both the boys’ and girls’ 4x100m free relay which rendered them atop the medal table through day 1. This morning Italy notched 3:31.96 to hold an over-a-second advantage ahead of Hungary who logged 3:33.32. The next squads of Denmark, France, Croatia and Great Britain are all within half a second of one another, with Spain and Germany also making tonight’s final contest.