2019 LEN EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, December 4th – Sunday, December 8th
- Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
- SCM
- Entry List
The women’s butterfly events in Glasgow will be missing Sarah Sjostrom, who has won three straight titles in the 100-meter distance and is a two-time champion in the 50, but they still bring a full lineup that promises some very interesting races.
Women’s 50 Butterfly
- European Record: 24.38, Therese Alshammar (SWE), 2009
- European Championship Record: 24.58, Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 2015
- 2017 Champion: Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), 24.78
Béryl Gastaldello has been on fire over the last two months in the sprints competing with the LA Current in the ISL, dominating fields in the 50 free, back and fly. The 24-year-old dropped a French Record 24.81 in the latter event at the American derby in College Park in mid-November, clearing her from the rest of the pack in Glasgow. The biggest question will be if she’s aiming to peak here or at the ISL final in Las Vegas, but given how far ahead she is in this event, she should easily take gold either way.
Her countrymate Melanie Henique enters as the second seed with a time of 25.02, done at last year’s SC World Championships where she was fourth, but hasn’t raced the event yet this year. However, she did swim a few events (50 free, 100 IM) at a meet in early November where she was close to best times, so she should be in the hunt.
Coming in with some momentum is Russian Arina Surkova, who swam personal best times in the event in long course (25.63) and short course (25.27) in back-to-back weeks in early November. This puts her second to Gastaldello this year among swimmers entered here, making her a major factor.
Also expected to be players in the race for the medals are Jeanette Ottesen, Elena Di Liddo, Anastasiya Shkurdai and Silvia Di Pietro, who all swam season-bests at ISL London like Gastaldello. The fastest among the group was Ottesen, the gold medalist in both 2011 and 2012, who was a quick 25.28.
Her fellow Dane Emilie Beckmann was the silver medalist two years ago and hit 25.44 in September as she’ll look to return to the podium.
TOP-3 PREDICTIONS
- Béryl Gastaldello, France
- Arina Surkova, Russia
- Jeanette Ottesen, Denmark
Women’s 100 Butterfly
- European Record: 54.61, Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 2014
- European Championship Record: 55.00, Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 2017
- 2017 Champion: Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 55.00
The 100 looks to be the most wide open of three, with Di Liddo leading the pack with her 56.06 from the 2018 Worlds just under a year ago. She’s been 56.97 this year, trailing only Surkova (56.40) and German Angelina Koehler (56.95) among those entered.
Lurking back with the 12th seed on the psych sheets is Gastaldello, who has only raced the event twice in SCM since 2013, going a best of 57.99 last year. However, she swam a personal best of 57.69 in long course in April, and given her recent form, she could very well be down in the 55s here.
Katinka Hosszu. Foto Gian Mattia D’Alberto – LaPresse
Back in 14th is Katinka Hosszu, the 2016 World Champion who hasn’t raced the event this year. If she’s anywhere close to her best of 55.12 it should be enough to win, but given she’s coming off a busy last few months that’s included departing from her coach, somewhere in the 56s seems more realistic.
Beckmann, Shkurdai, Aliena Schmidtke of Germany and Maria Ugolkova of Switzerland will also be factors with entries ranging from 56.9 to 57.2.
TOP-3 PREDICTIONS
- Béryl Gastaldello, France
- Katinka Hosszu, Hungary
- Arina Surkova, Russia
Women’s 200 Butterfly
- European Record: 1:59.61, Mireia Belmonte (ESP), 2014
- European Championship Record: 2:01.52, Mireia Belmonte (ESP), 2013
- 2017 Champion: Franziska Hentke (GER), 2:03.92
Hosszu was dominant in the 200 in her three ISL matches, and is miles ahead of the field with her 2:01.60 entry from the 2018 Worlds. She has been 2:03.94 this season, and will look to win the European SC title for the first time since 2012.
Great Britain’s Laura Stephens will be in the hunt for silver after clocking 2:04.9 last year and 2:06.4 in October, and Italian Ilaria Bianchi has had similar 2:05.5/2:06.9 swims.
Ana Catarina Monteiro of Portugal and Anna Pirovano of Italy are two relative unknowns to keep an eye on, and we may very well see a tight race between Zsuzsanna Jakabos and Boglarka Kapas for the second Hungarian spot in the final behind Hosszu (only two per country can advance out of the heats). Jakabos has been just under a second better this season in the ISL, going 2:06.98 in Lewisville compared to Kapas’ 2:07.76 in London.
TOP-3 PREDICTIONS
- Katinka Hosszu, Hungary
- Laura Stephens, Great Britain
- Anna Pirovano, Italy
Hosszú prediction:
200 Fly 2:01.48 Gold
100 Fly scratch
No Kapas on 2fly podium?
She is not an SC swimmer, LC would be different. She still may medal is she is prepared for this Euro. I hope 🙂
Haven’t seen much success from Kapas since Rio. Wish her the best.
Isn’t she world and European champion? Or did I miss the joke??
She won 200 fly at Gwangju. Ooops. Of course the time probably wasn’t satisfactory enough for Yozhik to count it as success.
I like this swimmer very much. And I was mostly talking about her freestyle. Especially her 800. After 8:16 in Rio she stated that she was going to improve her best by 2sec per year to compete successfully with Ledecky in this event. Not much progress was done here though.
Carlin is out of competition now but she got replaced by three very young and very strong swimmers. So Ledecky is not the only obstacle on her way to the podium.
So I wish her to be Olympian one more time and to get home with another medal.