During the third night of finals at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, favorites Yulia Efimova (women’s 100 breast) and Kristof Milak (men’s 200 fly) each posted impressive victories, while two other finals featured surprising results: Germany’s Florian Wellbrock winning the men’s 1500 free and Italy’s Alessandro Miressi taking the men’s 100 free.
Read below for an event-by-event recap of the session.
Men’s 1500 Free FINAL
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri entered as the reigning World and Olympic champion in the 1500 free, but he could not keep up with two young stars who stormed to gold and silver. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock jumped out to a lead over the second half of the race and held off an impressive late charge from Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk to take the gold medla.
Wellbrock finished in 14:36.15, followed by Romanchuk in 14:36.88. The duo improved to fourth and fifth all-time in the event, respectively, trailing only Sun Yang, Paltrinieri and the legendary Grant Hackett.
Paltrinieri ended up fading to bronze in 14:42.85.
Italy ended up going 3-4, despite the absence of Gabriele Detti, as Domenico Azerenza came in at 14:51.88. Norway’s Henrik Christiansen came in fifth at 14:56.47, followed by France’s Damien Joly (14:57.82), Ukraine’s Sergey Frylov (14:58.46) and the Czech Republic’s Jan Micka (14:59.49).
Men’s 100 Free FINAL
Italy’s Alessandro Miressi pulled away from a bunched-up field over the final 15 meters to capture gold in the men’s 100 free. Miressi topped Great Britain’s Duncan Scott, who grabbed the silver medal in 48.23, as well as French bronze medalist Mehdy Metella (48.24).
Missing from the final was the No. 1-ranked swimmer in the world, Russia’s Vladimir Morozov. Morozov has been as quick as 47.75 this year, but he missed the semi-finals in the event after two Russians qualified ahead of him. One of those Russians, Vladislav Grinev, finished fourth in 48.36.
Others in the final included Italy’s Luca Dotto (48.45), Hungary’s Nandor Nemeth (48.55), Ukraine’s Sergii Shevtsov (48.74) and Croatia’s Bruno Blaskovic (49.02).
Women’s 100 Breast FINAL
Russia’s Yulia Efimova was behind Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte at the 50-meter mark of the 100 breast final, but Efimova finished eight tenths quicker than anyone else in the field on the second 50. Efimova swam a time of 1:05.53, breaking her own championship record of 1:05.87 set in the semi-finals. However, she was well short of her world No. 1-ranked time of 1:04.98 from June.
Meilutyte, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the event, claimed second in 1:06.26, and the bronze went to Italy’s Arianna Castiglioni in 1:06.54.
Spain’s Jessica Vall Montero finished fourth in 1:06.98, followed by Great Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (1:07.30), Spain’s Marina Garcia Urzainqui (1:07.55), Italy’s Martina Carraro (1:07.59) and Sweden’s Sophie Hansson (1:07.67).
Men’s 100 Back Semi-Finals
Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov continued his run of World Junior Records as he took two-hundredths off his own mark in the men’s 100 back semi-finals. He touched in 52.95, good for the top seed heading into the final, and he beat his own WJR of 52.97 set in April. Kolesnikov broke his first senior world record Saturday with a 24.00 in the 50 back.
Kolesnikov’s countryman Evgeny Rylov qualified second for the final in 53.20, and Italy’s Simone Sabbioni took third in 53.39. Romania’s Robert Glinta (53.63) and Greece’s Apostolos Christou (53.90) also broke 54 seconds.
The final will also include Germany’s Christian Diener (54.10), Italy’s Thomas Ceccon (54.24) and Jan-Philip Glania (54.24).
Women’s 200 Fly Semi-Finals
Germany’s Franziska Hentke finished with a quick 2:07.55 in the first semi-final of the women’s 200 fly, and she ended up with the top seed in the event for the final. Great Britain’s Alys Thomas qualified second in 2:07.64, good for the second seed. Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas was just behind in 2:07.75.
It took under 2:09 to get into the final, and the other five qualifiers all finished within a half-second of each other. They included Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova (2:08.57), Hungary’s Liliana Szilagyi (2:08.70), Italy’s Alessia Polieri (2:08.77), Italy’s Ilaria Cussinato (2:08.84) and Portugal’s Ana Catarina Monteiro (2:08.96).
Men’s 200 Breast Semi-Finals
Russia’s Anton Chupkov was the only man to break 2:08 in the men’s 200 breast prelims at the European Championships, and he was again the only man under 2:08 in the semi-finals. The World Champion followed up his 2:07.70 in prelims with a 2:07.95 in the semi-finals.
Italy’s Luca Pizzini, who led Chupkov for the first 150 meters of their semi-final heat, qualified second in 2:08.52, followed closely by a pair of swimmers from the first semi-final, Great Britain’s Ross Murdoch (2:08.57) and Russia’s Kirill Prigoda (2:08.63).
Great Britain’s James Wilby, the silver medalist in the 100 breast behind the great Adam Peaty, qualified fifth in 2:09.59, ahead of Sweden’s Erik Persson (2:09.84), the Netherlands’ Arno Kamminga (2:10.00) and Lithuania’s Andrius Sidlauskas (2:10.12).
Women’s 50 Back FINAL
Great Britain’s Georgia Davies set a European record in the women’s 50 back prelims with a time of 27.21, and she swam just off that time to take gold in the final. Davies touched in 27.23, eight hundredths ahead of Russian veteran Anastasia Fesikova in 27.31.
Finland’s Mimosa Jallow took bronze in 27.70, four hundredths ahead of Poland’s Alicja Tchorz. Tchorz came up in front after an outstanding underwater portion, but she couldn’t hang on for a medal.
France’s Beryl Gastadello took fifth in 28.10, with Italy’s Carlotta Zofkova (28.31), the Czech Republic’s Simona Baumrtova (28.38) and the Netherlands’ Kira Toussaint (28.70) finishing sixth through eighth, respectively.
Men’s 200 IM Semi-Finals
Germany’s Philip Heintz, currently ranked fourth in the world in the men’s 200 IM at 1:56.67, qualified first for the final in his signature event in a time of 1:57.56. Just behind was Great Britain’s Max Litchfield at 1:57.62, and also getting under 1:58 was Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches at 1:57.99. Desplanches ranks No. 6 in the world this year at 1:57.04.
A trio of NCAA swimmers qualified in the next three spots: Great Britain’s Mark Szaranek (Florida) took fourth in 1:58.22, followed by Greece’s Andreas Vazaios (NC State) at 1:58.48 and Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez (Virginia Tech) at 1:59.28. The last two qualifers for the final included Portugal’s Alexis Manacas Santos (1:59.89) and Russia’s Semen Makovich (2:00.00).
Women’s 200 Free Semi-Finals
Neither Federica Pellegrini, the world record-holder and World Champion, nor Sarah Sjostrom, the Olympic silver medalist, chose to compete in the 200 free at the European Championships this year, so in their absence, the Netherlands’ Femke Heemskerk appears to be the favorite for the title.
Even though she shut off the gas with 10 meters to go and cruised into the wall, Heemskerk put up a time of 1:57.64, almost a half-second ahead of France’s Charlotte Bonnet (1:58.12). A pair of Russians, Anastasia Guzhenkova (1:58.18) and Valeriia Salamatina (1:58.37), took third and fourth, respectively.
Also making the final were Great Britain’s Holly Hibbott (1:58.46), Spain’s Melania Costa Schmid (1:58.53), Great Britain’s Eleanor Faulkner (1:58.71) and Germany’s Isabel Marie Gose (1:58.76).
Men’s 200 Fly FINAL
Hungary’s Kristof Milak swam under world-record pace for the first 100 meters of the 200 fly final, and he was just a tenth off the pace with 50 meters to go. The teenager became the first man in years to give a real challenge to the world record, the 1:51.51 set by Michael Phelps nine years ago in Rome.
Milak ended up fading badly on the final 50 meters and touching in 1:52.79, off not only Phelps’ world record but also countryman Laszlo Cseh’s European record (1:52.70 from 2008) and Milak’s own world junior record (1:52.71 from last year). Milak did beat Cseh’s meet record of 1:52.91 from 2016.
Another Hungarian, Tamas Kenderesi, took silver in 1:54.36. Kenderesi struggled in 2017 after winning Olympic bronze in 2016, but he bounced back nicely for a medal in Glasgow. Italy’s Federico Burdisso claimed bronze in 1:55.97.
Denmark’s Viktor Bromer and Belgium’s Louis Croenen tied for fourth in 1:56.33, followed by Poland’s Jan Switkowski (1:56.53), Azerbaijan’s Maksym Shemberev (1:56.73) and Bulgaria’s Antani Ivanov (1:57.88).
Men’s 4×200 Free Relay FINAL
Great Britain has won the past two World titles in the men’s 4×200 free relay, and no one else could keep pace in the European final of the relay. The team of Calum Jarvis (1:47.17), Duncan Scott (1:45.48), Thomas Dean (1:47.07) and James Guy (1:45.60) combined to swim a time of 7:05.32. That broke the championship record of 7:06.71 set by Russia in 2010.
Surprisingly, the British team swam almost five seconds slower than they did last year in winning a World title (7:01.80). Dean replaced Nicholas Grainger on this year’s team, while Scott (1:44.60 in Budapest) and Guy (1:43.80 last year) both split much slower.
Russia claimed silver in 7:06.66 with Mikhail Vekovishchev, Martin Malyutin, Danila Izotov and Mikhail Dovgalyuk. The Russians missed Aleksandr Krasnykh from last year’s team which claimed World Champs silver, and the team swam almost four seconds than last year’s time of 7:02.68.
Italy’s Alessio Proietti Colonna, Filippo Megli, Matteo Campi and Mattia Zuin claimed bronze in 7:07.58. Megli’s split of 1:45.44 was the fastest in the field.
Also in the final were Germany (7:09.31), Spain (7:13.07), France (7:13.12), the Netherlands (7:13.46) and Sweden (7:14.03).
