2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd
- Budapest, Hungary
- Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
- Event Site
- Entry List
- Live Stream
- Live Results
At least 4 National Records were broken in the preliminary rounds of the men’s 50 meter freestyle on Saturday morning at the European Championships. Of the group, all but one broke their own record.
- Heiko Gigler, Austria – 22.05 to breaks his own record of 22.30
- Andrej Barna, Serbia – 22.14 to break his own record of 22.21
- Daniel Zaitsev, Estonia – 22.32 to break Miko Malberg’s 2008 record of 22.37
- Matej Dusa, Slovakia – 22.49 to break his own record of 22.59
Gigler and Barna actually both did their record-setting swims in a swim-off after tying for 17th place in the prelims (22.27). Because there were 3 Italian swimmers ahead of them, and only 2 per nation are allowed to advance to the semi-finals, that tie for 17th became a tie for the last qualifying spot. The Austrian Gigler wound up winning that swim-off to advance to the semi-finals.
His 22.05 comes up just .04 seconds shy of the FINA Olympic “A” qualifying time.
The previous Austrian Record by Gigler was set at the 2019 World University Games. Prior to that, the record was a 22.56 that he swam at the Graz Trophy in April 2019.