Turkey’s Rising Star Viktoria Gunes

Photo Courtesy: Singapore Swimming Federation

On the morning of the last day of the 18^th European Short Course Championships in Netanya, Israel, Viktoria Gunes from Turkey showed off everyone as she qualified top seed for the women’s 200m breaststroke in a time of 2:21.01, a first in these championships for Turkey.

The morning started off with the women’s 50m freestyle where Sarah Sjoestroem (SWE) signed the fastest time at 23.81. She’ll have to fight against her 100m freestyle mate Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) whose 23.95 made her the only other swimmer to go under 24 this morning. Coming up close after is Jeanette Ottesen (24.13) from Denmark.

In the men’s 50m backstroke, it was Simone Sabbioni (ITA) with a time of 23.41 that earned top seed. Completing to 8 comes Great-Britain’s Christopher Walker-Hebborn (23.46), Poland’s Tomasz Polewka (23.47), Belarus’ Pavel Sankovich (23.57), Israel’s Guy Barnea (23.64), Israel’s Jonatan Kopelev (23.67), Estonia’s Ralf Tribuntsov (23.72) and Turkey’s Baslakov Iskender (23.74).

As mentioned previously, Vikoria Gunes from Turkey earned top seed for the women’s 200m breaststroke followed by Fanny Lecluyse from Belgium (2:21.43) and Maria Astashkina from Russia (2:21.56). To come back for a final tonight a time of 2:23.20 was needed.

Laszlo Cseh has been working hard on his butterfly for the past years as he had mentioned in numerous interviews and it hasn’t been unnoticed as he won the men’s 100m butterfly a few days ago and as he posted the top time in prelims this morning of the men’s 200m butterfly in a time of 1:51.54. Rounding out the top 3 were Viktor Bromer (DEN) 1:53.40 and Jan Self (CZE) 1:53.79.

The last individual preliminary event of these championships was the women’s 400m freestyle. Katinka Hosszu signed a top time of 4:01.98 while Jazmin Carlin (4:01.72) from Great-Britain came up second and Femke Heemskerk from the Netherlands (4:02.07) for the 3^rd spot. But these girls will have to be on the lookout for the other 6 girls that will compete in the final along them as anything can happen in a final of a big championship. Rounding out the top 8 were Diletta Carli (4:02.44), Boglarka Kapas (4:02.64), Erica Musso (4:02.97), Hannah Miley (4:03.73) and Sharon Van Rouwendaal (4:04.75).

Men’s 4x50m medley relay was lead by Russia’s team composed of Andrei Shabasov, Andrei Nikolaev, Aleksandr Popkov and Nikita Konovalov in a time of 1:33.87. The Russian women followed in the steps of their national mates as they finished first in 1:47.26 in the women’s 4x50m medley relay. The Russian relay was composed of Daria Ustinova, Natalia Ivaneeva, Alina Kashinskaya and Veronika Popova.

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Cali Ahmed

8 years ago

Congratulation??