2018 LEN EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Mäkelänrinne Swimming Centre, Helsinki, Finland
- Wednesday, July 4th – Sunday, July 8th (swimming)
- LCM
- Meet Site
- Entry List
- Live Stream
- Starting Lane Assignments/Results
This year’s edition of the European Junior Championships kicked off today in Helsinki, Finland. Female competitors, born in 2001 – 2004, and male swimmers, born 2000 – 2003, are allowed to participate.
The Olympic competition program is being swum plus additional 50m events in backstroke, breaststroke and Butterfly. All competitions will be held with heats, semi-finals and finals, except the 400m, 800m (fastest heat=final), 1500m freestyle (fastest heat=final) and 400m IM and the relays.
Norway’s Tomoe Zenimoto (18) qualified first in the 50m butterfly with a time of 23,59. That time is a new personal best and also very close to the current Championship Record (23,51). Zenimoto now ranks 22nd in the 2018 World Ranking with USA’s Caeleb Dressel.
European Junior Record Holder in the 100m freestyle Freya Anderson (GBR) set herself up well for tonight’s semifinal by taking the top seed with a time of 55,01. She set the European Junior Record at the 2017 Junior World Championships where she was clocked at 53,88.
Hungary’s Kristof Milak won two individual World Junior titles in 2017 (100m fly and 200m fly) and is the World Junior Record Holder in both events. He didn’t match his season best time in the 400m freestyle (3:48,47) in the morning heats but he led the field into tonight’s final in 3:52,06.
The women’s 400m IM were an Hungarian affair with three young ladies on 1-2-3: 15-year old Viktoria Mihalyvari came in third with a new personal best time of 4:47,48, she is not eligible to start tonight because only two swimmers of every nation can get a spot in the final. Second place finisher Lili Horvath will represent Hungary in tonight’s final, she was clocked at 4:47,30 behind Ajna Kesely (4:45,81).
The men took it easy in the 100m backstroke prelims with Daniel-Cristian Martin (ROU) who took the top seed for tonight’s semi-final in 54,23 ahead of Russia’s World Junior Record Holder in this event, Kliment Kolesnikov (54,58). Kolesnikov’s record stands at 52,97 which he set at the 2018 Russian National Championships.
The Russian team took the top spots in the 4x100m freestyle relay on the men’s and women’s side. In both events, Italy took the second seed for tonight’s final and Germany finished third.
OTHER PRELIM RESULTS
- The Hungarian girls also showed fast performances in the 200m butterfly with Blanka Berecz on the top in a time of 2:11,41 and 14-year old Dora Hathazi with the third fastest time in 2:12,63.
- 16-year old Fleur Vermeiren from Belgium posted the top time in the Women’s 50m breaststroke in 31,35.
- Russia’s Aleksandr Zhigalov grabbed the top seed for tonight’s semifinal in the 200 m breaststroke (2:14,48).
- Vanda Laura Ilyes (HUN) came in first in the women’s 200m backstroke in 2:12,38, not far off her season and personal best time (2:12,32).