On day 1 of the European Junior Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, two rising stars of the sport made big stamps. The meet, held for 15-16 year old girls and 17-18 year old boys, is a showcase of talents that will soon rise to much bigger stages.
The first is Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, who will also be a part of the UK’s squad for the World Championships in Shanghai in three weeks for her work in the 200 IM. She took the women’s 400 IM in 4:46.61, which crushes her own personal best by over 2.5 seconds. She went out in a blistering 3:38.76 through the first 300 meters of the race: a world-class pace that is a similar split to Americans like Dagny Knutson and Andie Taylor (who are both three years older than O’Connor). Look out for O’Connor in the 200 IM on Sunday’s final day of competition; I’d expect a time that will put her in the top 20 in the world in her better event.
On the men’s side, Austrian Christian Scheruebl (3:51.75) took a hard-fought win in the 400 free over Italy’s Gabrielle Detti (3:52.05) and Poland’s Michal Szuba (3:52.77). Though Scheruebl never really trailed in this race, that doesn’t mean his swim went without challenge. He seemed to have the win in hand headed into the final lap, but a hard charge from Detti caused the young Austrian to have a serious fight through the final 40 meters or so. For Scheruebl, that win is an Austrian 18 & under National Record.
Croatia’s Mihael Vukic won the men’s 50 fly in 23.90, which moves him into a tie for 20th in the world and also breaks a 5-year old National Junior Record in the race.
In the only other men’s race of the day, the Italian junior crew, which is the strongest and deepest in Europe right now on the men’s side, took the 400 free relay in 3:23.13, led by a 50.14 on their third leg by Giacomo Ferri. That mark tied with France’s Clement Mignon as the top-swim honor for the event. This race showed just how much depth is coming through the pipeline in the sprints in Europe right now: the top 5 squads (Spain, Germany, Denmark, and Russia) all finished within exactly half-a-second of each other.
On the women’s side, Ireland’s Sycerika McMahon took the women’s 50 breaststroke in 32.00, which just nudged Hungary’s Anna Sztankovics (32.02) from the top of the podium. Those swims sneak them both into the top 50 in the world rankings this year.
In the only other final of the day, Poland’s Donata Kilijanska took a sizeable win in the women’s 800 free in 8:40.48, despite a fairly-fast final (for a junior meet).
Preliminary Action
The hometown Serbians didn’t win any medals on the first day of competition, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t give their fans a thrill. breaststroker Igor Terzic crushed the 17-18 National Record in the 200 in prelims, and then broke it by another full second in the semi-finals (2:18.81). The Serbian 400 free relay also set an age group National Record in the opening heats (3:32.13) but failed to final.
Germany’s Christian Deiner broke the National Age Group Record in the 100 backstroke semi-final, with the top seed of 55.11 headed towards day 2’s final. That swim just barely missed the European Junior Record of 55.06 set by the great Laszlo Cseh set back in 2003.
Full Day 1 Results available here.
Live video throughout the meet available here.
I’m assuming that first men’s race you detailed is the 400 free?
Yessir.