July 13, 2014 - Craig Lord

Kyle Stolk gave the Dutch hosts in Dordrecht of the European Junior Championships gold in the last session of a meet topped by Russia, his 1:48.46 win over 200m freestyle granting the home crowd a curtain-closing cheer.

At the helm of the 200m final by half-way, on 53.26, he was the sole sub-1:21 man at the last turn and then managed to hold off a fast finish from Italy’s Nicolangelo Di Fabio: on 1:21.69 and closest to Stolk going into the last lap, he was forced to settle for silver in 1:48.80. The bronze was a touch away, Russian Anton Skudnov on 1:49.23, that locking out Britain’s 200m medley winner Duncan Scott, on 1:49.66.

Russia ran away with the meet, four more solo golds and wins in both concluding relays today topped by a 22.16 (after 22.15 in semis) from Evgeny Sedov, who has a best of 21.98, a maiden sub-22 established just before FINA introduced World Junior Records. Sedov holds the official global age mark at 22.07. Closest to him today was Poland’s Jan Holub, on 22.45, the bronze to Fotios Mylonos, of Greece, in 22.56.

A Break For The Continental Birthing Pool

Dordrecht marked a turning point in the thread of age-group swimming history in Europe and for an event that has long been a birthing pool of future senior champions.

There will be no European Junior Championships next year for the first time since it all began in 1967, the limited multi-sports European Games having muscled in on the continental calendar.

The new event, to be held in Baku, marks a backward step for junior swimming and its tradition in Europe: the program and the entry, on numbers, is limited and a great many of the continent’s top youth swimmers will miss out as a consequence.

Africa In European Junior Record Form

Africa Sanz claimed the medley double for Spain with a 2:13.80 championship record over 200m. The silver went to Britain’s Georgia Coates in 2:14.72, Lisa Hoepnik of Germany taking bronze in 2:14.97.

Magyar Medley Muscle

Hungary’s tradition of producing world-class 400IM challengers continues apace, Benjamin Gratz and Norbert Szabo making it a 1-2 finish for Magyar with respective effort of 4:19.68 and 4:23.77. The bronze went to Spain in 4:24.09, courtesy of Joan Casanovas.

Russia’s Rise To The Meet Trophy

Russia responded with its own 1-2 in the next final, Daria K Ustinova the dominant force at the helm of the 100m backstroke on 1:00.37, Ekaterina Tomashevshaia on 1:01.53 for silver, Germany’s Laura Riedemann taking bronze in 1:02.34.

Russia continued its march to the championship trophy with two more podium places in the girls 100m breaststroke, gold to Maria Astashkina in a dominant 1:07.82. Germany’s Marlene Huether split the difference between teammates for silver in 1:09.19 to 1:09.33 for Daria Chikunova.

Aleksandr Sadovnikov was next to take gold for Russia, a 53.52 leading three efforts inside 54 in the 100m butterfly. Silver went to Switzerland’s Nils Liess in 53.59, bronze to Vladislav Kozlov, of Russia, in 53.83. That locked out Britain’s Craig Bowman, on 54.04.

Room For Winners Beyond Russia

Max Pilger overhauled four others after the turn in the 100m breaststroke on his way to a 1:01.97 victory just ahead of Israel’s Itay Goldfaden, on 1:02.09. The battle for bronze went to Russian Anton Chupkov in 1:02.22, 0.1sec ahead of Stanislau Pazdezeyeu of Belarus.

The last solo final for girls produced gold for Slovakia, Barbora Misendova on 26.84 in the 50m butterfly ahead of Hungarian Szonja Szokol, on 27.02 and 0.01sec ahead of Russia’s Maria Kamaneva.

Curtain-closing relays

The girls 4x200m freestyle was dominated by Russia, a combined 8:03.68 granting the meet winners gold.

For Arina Openysheva, who opened on 2:0.55, the relay confirmed her as the most decorated girl of the championships, with gold in the 100, 200 and 400m freestyle alongside a pile of relay medals, girls and mixed. She was followed in the relay today by Daria Mullakaeva (1:59.05) and the two Darias, K and S Ustinova (2:02.47 and 2:01.61 respectively).

Germany took silver in 8:07.06, Spain bronze in 8:08.29, a tight tussle ending with Italy, 8:08.73, and Great Britain, 8:08.78, close but locked out nonetheless.

Russia won the last gold of the championships with a 3:39.25 in the boys 4x100m medley, Evgeny Rylov (54.44) leading Anton Chupkov (1:00.86), Aleksandr Sadovnikov (53.43) before Filipp Shopin closed the account in 50.52. Italy took silver in 3:41.06, Germany bronze in 3:41.20.

Read the original article at the Swim Vortex website.