On Thursday, representatives of Ukraine were represented in two types. And not in the worst way, as for the modern realities of our sailing. In the qualification of the 100-meter butterfly, four Ukrainians started at once, and one of them managed to make it to the semifinals. 23-year-old Odessan Ihor Troyanovsky, who in 2019 was the European champion among juniors at the distance of 200 m with a dolphin, set a personal record in the qualification of twice the shorter distance – 51.07 seconds, took 13th place and was the second Ukrainian after the men’s relay team to make it to the evening session. In the semi-final swim, Ihor swam even faster. For the first time in his career, he covered the distance faster than 51 seconds – in 50.66. This time, unfortunately, was not enough to make it to the eight finalists – 11th position.
Other Ukrainians who competed in the 100m butterfly qualification did not impress. 21-year-old Arseniy Kovalev took 29th place with a score of 51.70. Denys Kesil finished third in the top ten with a personal record of 51.77. 22-year-old Vadym Naumenko, who also swam the best in his career (52.44), became 36th.
22-year-old Maksym Ovchinnikov in the qualification of the 200-meter breaststroke showed a result of 2.07.06 and became 24th.
And the main event of the competition day concluded the competition program of Thursday. The Italian quartet of Leonardo Deplano, Lorenzo Zazzeri, Silvia Di Pietro and Sarah Curtis won gold in the mixed 4x50m crawl, setting the first world record of this championship – 1.27.26. From the previous achievement, set three years ago in Melbourne by the French, the Italians took only seven hundredths of a second.
Mixed 4×50 m freestyle relay
1. Italy (Leonardo Deplano, Lorenzo Zazzeri, Silvia Di Pietro, Sara Curtis; in swimming – Giovanni Guatti, Agatha Maria Ambler) – 1.27,26 WR
2. Hungary (Sebastian Szabo, Adam Jasho, Petra Senanski, Minna Abraham; in swimming – Nandor Nemet, Panna Ugray) – 1.28.04
3. The Netherlands (Brandon van den Berg, Shane Nivold, Marrit Steenbergen, Valerie van Ron; in swimming – Kenzo Simons, Tessa Gilles, Milk van Wijk) – 1.28,42
It is interesting that, as the day before in the mixed combined relay, the favorites were the representatives of the Netherlands. However, on Wednesday, the Dutch, having lost to the Italians, were satisfied with the silver, and today they also let Hungary go ahead of them and won the bronze award. In both cases, Marrit Steenbergen, potentially the main multi-medalist of this World Championship, was represented in the Dutch team. After all, in Marrit does not consist of gold awards only in mixed relays. In personal aspects, she is unsurpassed. To the gold in the women’s 4×50 m relay today, Stenbergen added two more championship titles, both of which she strengthened with European and tournament records.
In the 100-meter race, in both cases, Marrit surpassed the achievements of the legendary Hungarian Katinka Gossu, set at different times. Marritt’s 56.26 is 41 hundredths of a second faster than the ten-year-old championship record and 0.25 off the eight-year-old continental record.
100 m complex, women
1. Marrit Steenbergen (Netherlands) – 56.26 ER, CR
2. Ros Vanotterdyk (Belgium) – 56.80
3. Anastasia Horbenko (Israel) – 57.17
Stenbergen won her third gold of this European Championship and her fifth award in total at the distance of 200 m crawl. Marritt’s 1.50.33 is 84 hundredths of a second faster than the 16-year-old championship record held by Italian Federica Pellegrini and one-tenth of a second faster than the European record set in 2017 in Eindhoven by Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström.
200 m freestyle, women
1. Marrit Steenbergen (Netherlands) – 1.50.33 ER, CR
2. Minna Abraham (Hungary) – 1.51.47
3. Freya Colbert (Great Britain) – 1.51.94
Swiss Noe Ponti won his second gold of this championship and again with an updated tournament record. Undefeated in the 25-meter pool in all types of butterfly, Ponti now won the 100-meter medley. Noe’s championship time of 50.52 is 24 hundredths of a second faster than the previous championship record set at Istanbul 2009 by Slovenia’s Peter Mankoc.
100 m complex, men
1. Noah Ponti (Switzerland) – 50.52 CR
2. Maxim Grousse (France) – 50.53
3. Heiko Giegler (Austria) – 51.60
…19. Vadym Naumenko (Ukraine) – 53.51
…35. Anton Denysenko (Ukraine) – 55.43
24-year-old Irishman Daniel Whiffen won the fourth gold of the continental championships in short water in his career, winning the longest distance – 1500 m crawl. Daniel defended the title thanks to skillfully chosen tactics. He stayed behind the Hungarian Zalan Sarkany for most of the distance, and then overtook him at the finish line. We should also mention the bronze of the highly-titled German Florian Wellbrock, who has been the main star of open water swimming for a long time, where he is both an Olympic champion and a nine-time world champion. In Lublin, Florian showed that he has not yet learned to swim in the pool either.
1500 m freestyle, men
1. Daniel Whiffen (Ireland) – 14.13.96
2. Zalan Sarkany (Hungary) – 14.15.51
3. Florian Wellbrook (Germany) – 14.19.26
Two-time Olympic champion and five-time world relay champion Duncan Scott from Great Britain showed that he can sometimes win in individual events. Having overtaken fellow countryman Jake McMillan at the finish line of the 200-meter freestyle, Scott won the third gold medal of the continental short-course championships in his career.
200 m freestyle, men
1. Duncan Scott (Great Britain) – 1.40.54
2. Jake McMillan (Great Britain) – 1.40.94
3. Evan Bailey (Ireland) – 1.41.48
…36. Ilya Linnyk (Ukraine) – 1.44.43 NR
…57. Denys Kesil (Ukraine) – 1.47.03
On Friday, December 5, seven finals will be held at the European Championship in Lublin.
Source: sport.ua