Federico Burdisso Drops 1:56.8 200 Fly on Night 1 of Euro Meet

21ST LUXEMBOURG EURO MEET

• January 25-27 2019
• d’Coque, Luxembourg
• 50m (Long Course Meters)
• Meet website
• Schedule
• Entry List
• Results

The 21st edition of the Euro Meet kicked off today in Luxembourg, with the first day down and two days still to come.

Italian 17-year-old Federico Burdisso dropped a big swim in the 200 fly, winning the event in 1:56.87, finishing over a second ahead of 2nd place Bence Biczo of Hungary (1:57.98).

Burdisso just went 1:57.14 last weekend, when he set a new meet record at the Geneva International Challenge in Switzerland. He split things 54.43 / 1:02.71 there, and was out harder tonight, going out in 53.74 and coming back in 1:03.13. That’s a hurting back half, but Burdisso won this race and finished just three tenths back of Lazslo Cseh’s meet record (1:56.58) from 2016. Additionally, Burdisso was less than a second off of his best time (1:55.97), and this is his third-best performance ever; a very good swim for January. Burdisso is set to join the Northwestern Wildcats in the NCAA in fall of 2019.

Burdisso hops ahead of Americans Chase Kalisz and Luca Urlando to 7th in the world this year.

Robert Glinta of Romania and 18-year-old Kliment Kolesnikov of Russia went head-to-head in the 100 back. Glinta raced for USC for a season but has left the NCAA and is living life as a pro, while Kolesnikov made waves in 2018, including breaking the super-suited 50 back world record and winning the European title.

Glinta got his hand to the wall first tonight, going 53.83 to Kolesnikov’s 54.15. That’s a new meet record for Glinta, who erases Greece’s Apostolos Christou’s 54.00 mark from 2017. Glinta moves to #5 in the world rankings, while Kolesnikov is already 2nd.

Swedish superstar Sarah Sjöström raced twice tonight. She won the 50 fly by almost a full second, going 25.72, which was still more than a second off of her own WR. Italians Elena Di Liddo (26.61) and Silvia Di Pietro (26.80) touched 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Sjöström swam the 100 back A final, too, finishing 4th at 1:01.41. Simona Kubova (formerly Baumrtova) was 1:00.91 to win that race ahead of GBR’s Georgia Davies (1:01.02) and Italy’s Silvia Scalia (1:01.22). Katina Hosszu was not as dominant as she used to be in multi-event sessions, falling to 8th (1:03.11).

Sjöström takes over as the world leader in the 50 fly.

Iron Lady Hosszu of Hungary won the first event of the night, the women’s 400 IM, in 4:38.92. She was the only finisher under 4:50. Hosszu went into the 200 fly not long after that swim, ultimately going 2:14.82 to place 4th. Hungarian Liliana Szilagyi and Briton Laura Stephens wound up tying for the win there, both hitting the wall at 2:09.73, while Denmark’s Regitze Gaard posted a 2:14.73 to edge Hosszu. Another Hungarian, David Verraszto, clocked a 4:18.36 to easily win the men’s 400 IM.

OTHER WINNERS

• GBR’s Ben Proud took the men’s 50 fly, going 23.52 to edge Dutch sprinter Mathys Goosen (23.70). Proud slides up to #4 this year in the world rankings.
• The women’s 800 free went to teenager Polly Holden of Great Britain– she’s one of the UK’s up-and-coming open water swimmers. Holden went 8:46.12 to beat the 2004-born Freya Colbert (8:57.15).
• Sergiy Frolov of Ukraine was 15:28.49 to win the men’s 1500 free ahead of Azerbaijan’s Maksym Shemberev (15:38.99).