2018 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- August 3-9, 2018 (swimming portion)
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Tollcross International Swimming Centre
- Meet Central
- Program
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Stream (Europe w/ English commentary)
- Full Results
In a 50 freestyle semi-final more eventful than most, including a new textile-best and British Record from Ben Proud, Russian Vlad Morozov joined the record-parade by tying the Russian mark with a 3rd-qualifying 21.44.
That swim ties his own personal best that he did in the semi-finals of the 2017 Russian Championship as the fastest-ever by a Russian.
In spite of matching his personal best swim, he actually dropped a spot in the all-time rankings, now tied for 19th with Cam McEvoy. That’s because Italy’s Andrea Vergani swam 21.37 for 2nd and a new Italian Record, which ties him with Nathan Adrian for 14th all-time. Kristian Gkolomeev broke his own Greek Record to place 4th in 21.52.
Those 4 will lead the way into Thursday’s final, where they will be joined by Poland’s Pawel Juraszek, Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen, Holland’s Jesse Puts, and the winner of a swim-off between Simonas Bilis of Lithuania and Andriy Govorov of Ukraine.
His challenge will be to drop time. In addition to Russian Nationals, where he was previously 21.44, Morozov has a history of not improving from early rounds to later rounds. At the 2016 Olympics, he added time from prelims to semis (which resulted in him missing the final). at Worlds last year, he added time from semis to finals and placed 4th. He did manage a big drop from semis to finals at Worlds in 2015, but that year his semis time was only 22.02.