Tamas Kenderesi, an 18-year-old from Hungary, joined the top 15 in the world over 200m butterfly this year and confirmed his new status when he claimed the 200m butterfly crown in 1:56.74 at the European Junior Championships in Dordrecht this evening.

Kenderesi’s last-lap blast to a big career best leap-frogged the best Hungarian of the season before that, Laszlo Cseh, the 2008 Olympic silver medallist behind Michael Phelps, and marked a 2.28sec personal improvement from the 1:59.03 he clocked earlier in the season before a 1:56.59 at Hungarian Junior nationals last month for world No 13 this season. A 1:58.92 in semis yesterday delivered the warning that Kenderesi has stepped up big time since a best last year of  2:01.95.

That level of gain left Kenderesi  in a class of his own, the silver to Nils Liess, of Switzerland, on 1:58.51, the bronze to Germany’s Alexander Kunert in 1:58.92.

Kenderesi swam stroke-for-stroke with Liess for three laps, turning in 1:26.37 before heading for home, the Swiss challenger on 1:26.74.

It was also last-lap speed that granted gold to Britain’s Duncan Scott in the 200m medley. At the last turn, Scott’s 1:33.81 split was fifth best, Lithuania’s Povilas Stradzdas at the helm on 1:32.98, followed by Hungarians Benjamin Gratz and Norbert Szabo as well as Italian Raffaele Tavoletta.

Scott, who is a Scot, was not to be denied and sped past all four for a 2:01.57 victory ahead of Szabo, 2:02.00, and Gratz, 2:02.21. Scott was not done there.

The Relays

Germany’s Henning Muehlleitner (1:51.14), Konstantin Walter (1:51.16), Damian Wierling (1:49.29 and heading to his second podium of the day) and Alexander Kunert (1:49.66) claimed gold in 7:21.25 in the 4x200m freestyle.

Italy (Nicolangelo Di Fabio, Mattia Zuin, Alessio Occhipinti and Francesco Peron) took silver in 7:22.62, Britain (Martyn Walton, 1500m winner Daniel Jervis, Jack Smith and the 200m medley winner Duncan Scott, with a decisive 1:48.31 homecomer that marked the speediest split in the whole final) bronze in 7:23.13. That locked Russia and Spain out by respective margins of 0.23 and 0.52.

In other finals

Russia’s Daria K Ustinova claimed gold with a 28.18 championship record in the 50m backstroke. Her teammate Maria Kameneva took silver in 28.48, the bronze to Croatia’s Ema Sarar in 29.18.

Ustinova later led the Russian 4x100m medley quartet to gold with a 1:00.25 opener that set the tone for Maria Astashkina (1:07.60), Alexandra Chesnokova (1:00.89) and triple winner of yesterday Arina Openysheva (56.90) on the way to gold in 4:05.64.

The silver went to Germany (Laura Riedemann, Marlene Huether (for a second podium visit on the day), Lisa Hoepnik and Nele Klein, in 4:07.59, the bronze to Italy (Federica Sarti, Eleonora Clerici, Sara Gyertyanffy and Rachele Ceracchi) in 4:10.32.

The men’s 50m breaststroke semis had Itay Goldfaden, of Israel, out front on 28.30. The final proved too much for him, however, a 28.86 good for seventh, the crown gone in 28.34 to Stanislau Pazdzeyeu. The minor spoils went in 28.57 and 28.60 respectively to Poland’s Krzysztof Tokarski and Anton Chupkov, of Russia, Britain’s Charlie Atwood locked out by 0.07sec.

Maria Astashkina and Daria Chikunova gave Russia a 1-2 finish in the 200m breaststroke with respective efforts of 2:26.61 and 2:27.78. The close battle for bronze went to Britain’s Emma Cain in 2:29.17 over a 2:29.76 for Germany’s Marlene Huether, another Brit, Abbie Wood, just 0.04sec further adrift and Italy’s Giulia Verona on 2:30.15.

In the absence of injured Evgeny Sedov, Poland’s Jan Holub took the boys 100m freestyle title in 49.49 after holding off the pack that chased him down from his advantage of a leading 23.47 split at the turn. Dutchman Kyle Stolk was the only other inside 24 at half-way, on 23.84, but on the way home, Damian Wierling, of Germany raced from fifth to tale silver in 49.57, Hungarian Peter Holoda took bronze in 49.74. That locked out Italian Alessandro Bori, on 50.14, and Stolk, on 50.22.

The last solo final of the day had Italy’s Simona Quadarella out front in the 1500m freestyle in 16:30.37 after edging away from Spain’s Laura Rodriguez from the 900m onwards. Rodriguez took silver in 16:34.04, the bronze going to Hungarian Melinda Novoszath in 16:42.65.

Read the original article at the Swim Vortex website.