Netanya 2015 LEN European SC Championships – Day 4

Katinka Hosszu: the one-woman show

With six gold medals already in her possession, Katinka Hosszu might even lead the medal table on her own. Hungary’s Iron Lady added two more titles to her tally on Day 4. Italians enjoyed another fine day with two more golds, one delivered by Federica Pellegrini. German Marco Koch clinched the classical breaststroke double.

Team ITALY BOCCHIA Federico ORSI Marco FERRAIOLI Erica DIPIETRO Silvia gold medal Mixed 4x50m freestyle final Netanya, Israel, Wingate Institute LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships Dec. 2 – 6, 2015 Day 04 Dec.05 Nuoto Campionati Europei di nuoto in vasca corta Photo Giorgio Perottino/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

LAUKKANEN Jenna FIN gold medal Women’s 100m breaststroke final Netanya, Israel, Wingate Institute LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships Dec. 2 – 6, 2015 Day 04 Dec.05 Nuoto Campionati Europei di nuoto in vasca corta Photo Giorgio Perottino/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

HOSSZU Katinka HUN gold medal Women’s 200m medley final Netanya, Israel, Wingate Institute LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships Dec. 2 – 6, 2015 Day 04 Dec.05 Nuoto Campionati Europei di nuoto in vasca corta Photo Giorgio Perottino/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

PELLEGRINI Federica ITA gold medal Women’s 200m freestyle final Netanya, Israel, Wingate Institute LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships Dec. 2 – 6, 2015 Day 04 Dec.05 Nuoto Campionati Europei di nuoto in vasca corta Photo Giorgio Perottino/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

Katinka Hosszu had three swims in the morning and qualified first in each but she dropped the 200m free final from her programme in order to secure the other two titles. She needed the reserves, especially in the 50m back. In the 200m IM no one could challenge her, though, admittedly starting to feel pains, she was off her own WR pace. Towards the end of the session she was back for the backstroke dash and after a brilliant duel with ER-holder Sanja Jovanovic (CRO) she won this event, too. As for finals, she stands 6 for 6 (she withdrew from three event either after or before the heats) – and she is looking for a final assault in the 400m free on Sunday.

Though Hosszu stayed away, the final of the 200m free was still a real thriller. Federica Pellegrini (ITA), Femke Heemskerk (NED) and Veronika Popova (RUS) rushed forward early in the race and set a pretty fast pace. Only tenths separated them at each turn with Heemskerk leading the pack but it was Pellegrini who could switch gears and gained an amazing 1.21sec on the Dutch in the last 50m.

Italy captured another title, again in the session-closing relay: in the mixed free Marco Orsi’s 20.46 blast in the second leg prepared the field for the girls and Erika Ferraioli did another great job coming home.

This was also the day of breaststroke doubles. Among the men Marco Koch did the classical one, adding the 100m crown to his 200m title – the German looks to occupy the driving seat instead of Daniel Gyurta (HUN), who did the same feat in 2013 in Herning. Koch can also be proud to finish ahead of Adam Peaty – the Brit this time wasn’t as sharp as in Kazan where he triumphed in the 50m and 100m. Among the women Jenna Laukkanen just achieved this latter double, winning the longer distance after the dash: the Finn controlled the race really well and her win was never in danger.

The day’s men dash race – 50m fly – saw Ukraine’s Andriy Govorov earning a fine win with a gap of 0.2sec, a rather convincing margin in this event.

Thanks to Hosszu’s efforts, Hungary tops the medal table with 10 golds after four days – in fact, Hosszu has more titles (6) than the second placed Italians (5). She also heads the individual rankings among the women while Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri is about to earn 20,000 euros as the best man, provided no one can come up with really great 1000-pointer effort (surely a world record) on the final day of the event.

Press release from LEN

Photos courtesy of Deepbluemedia/Giorgio Scala