Katinka Hosszu cracks WR in the heats, wins first gold in the evening
Katinka Hosszu (HUN) was fresh to set the first world record of the 18th European Short-Course Swimming Championships in the morning heats of the opening day. Later she added the title in the 400m IM and his team-mate Peter Bernek also earned a gold for Hungary. Radoslaw Kawecki (POL), Damir Dugonjic (SLO), Jenna Laukkanen (FIN) and the Russian men’s free relay were the other gold medallists on Day 1.
Katinka Hosszu made a flying start at the 18th European Short-Course Swimming Championships bettering the world record in the 400m IM right in the heats (4:19.46). She was a bit shy of her morning time in the evening (4:19.75), due to a couple of weaker turns, however, her first win was never in danger, gaining seven seconds on the others behind her. Later she went on qualifying first for the final of the 100m back, to be held on Thursday.
Hungary enjoyed a great opening day as Peter Bernek came first in the 400m free, adding the European crown to his s/c world title from last year. German veteran Paul Biedermann produced his usual great finish but couldn’t catch up the Hungarian: half a second separated them (and six years in age…).
Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki did also a clean job, his brilliant turns secured him a rather safe win in the 200m back (1:48.33), while the hosts happily celebrated the first Israeli medal of the meet, courtesy of Yakov Toumarkin (1:49.84).
The dash breaststroke events brought a couple of unexpected results: Slovenia’s Damir Dugonjic (26.20) out-touched world champion Adam Peaty (GBR) by the tiniest margin possible (0.01sec), and the women’s title landed in the hands of Finland’s Jenna Laukkanen (29.71), ahead of Belgium’s Fanny Lecluyse (29.84).
Russia’s quartet ruled the field in the 4x50m free relay, each member clocked sub-20sec splits, the only relay capable of that so they were 0.95sec faster than the runners-up Italians. Though worth mentioning that 33 year-old Filippo Magnini earned his 33rd European medal, a huge feat indeed.
Press release from LEN, images courtesy of LEN Media / Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia
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