10 Things We Noticed From The First Day of the 2014 European Championships

The 2014 European Championship kicked off today, and here are a few things we noticed. Day 1 finals were limited, but they did swim finals of a few events (M400 Freestyle, W400 IM, and the Men’s and Women’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay).

See the full day 1 finals recap, with links to results and video, here.

1. Velimir Stjepanovic of Serbia won the first event of the day with the ninth fastest time in the world this year. He is a younger swimmer, at 21 years old, and looks to be Serbia’s most promising up-and-comers, and has spent most of his young life living and training in Dubai. He has won medals at junior events throughout his career, hasn’t been as competitive internationally. He did medal at the 2013 Mediterranean Games and the short course world championships.  He should be strong later in the week in the 200 fly. He finaled in that event at the 2012 Olympic Games. He failed to make it out of prelims at the world championships last year in this event.
2. SARAH SJOSTROM!!! Do I really need to say more than that? No, but I can’t resist. She had the fastest time in the semi-finals of the 50 fly by more than a half a second, and is now within tenths of her World Record mark. Her time broke the previous championship record as well.Then, Sjostrom anchored the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay with a blistering 52.14 split! She is one of only three girls this year to break 53 in a flat start 100 freestyle, but 52.1 is insane, even with a relay start. Cate Campbell has the fastest flat start time of the year at 52.68.
3. Katinka Hosszu added another title to her resume in the women’s 400 IM. She broke the championship record with her time 4:31.03 and was under World Record pace through the breaststroke leg. It was a great swim, but Ye Shiwen’s final 100 was too big for Hosszu to take down today. That could be the cry as swimmers chase Ye’s 4:28.43 that we expect to stand for a long time. Being ahead of World Record pace at the 300 meter mark doesn’t necessarily mean you’re anywhere near the World Record. Ye closed in 58.68 at the 2012 Olympics, whereas Hosszu was only a 1:04.0 today in Berlin. Shortly after this swim, Hosszu swam a 2:20.04 in the women’s 200 backstroke semi-final to miss out on the final. She’s still got 8 more individual races to go at this meet, and if she were shaving events off of that lineup, the 200 backstroke wouldn’t be left as part of her core anyway.
4. Adam Peaty continues to improve after swimming the second fastest time in the world at the Commonwealth Games earlier this summer. Today he dropped more time to post the fastest time in the world this year at 58.68. That time will stand as the new European Championship record. Christian Sprenger is the only other swimmer that has been under 59 this season. He won’t have his shot at redemption at the up-coming Pan Pacific Championships in his home country, as he’s skipping the meet with a shoulder injury.
5. Mireia Belmonte opened the gates, and now the trickle of success for the Spanish women has turned into a deluge. That included two swimmers into the final of the women’s 200 back, including the top seed Duane da Rocha, and Belmonte’s silver medal in the 400 IM. They didn’t have any entries in the 50 fly, showing that this group is focused more on Olympic events. Spain would put together a very good 800 medley relay, but still is looking for the right group to win medals internationally in the existing relays. Once they get to that point, more people will take notice of their success.
6. Israel’s David Gamburg saved some face for his country’s backstroke group that is increasing in prominence. In prelims, none of the Israeli swimmers were in the top 16, but Gamburg moved into the semi-finals anyway because of the two-per-country rule on advancing. He took advantage of that with a 54.76 to tie for 6th in the semi-finals. That’s a great swim for him, because not only did it improve on his prelims performance by well over half-a-second, the 6th-15th place spots in the semi’s were separated by less than four tenths. That meant swimmers had to be really precise to book their tickets through, as evidenced by Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki. Kawecki was a medal contender coming in, but finished 10th in the semis in 54.92 to miss the final. That means roughly 30 centimeters, less than a foot, separated Gamburg’s great swim from Kawecki’s disappointing result.
7. Denmark’s women’s 4×100 relay looked great until it was later discovered that they were disqualified. One more relay swimmer we think deserves a mention is Femke Heemskerk from the Netherlands. She anchored their relay in 52.78.
8. Russia’s Arina Openysheva, who just turned 15 in March, is another great young sprinter for the country’s women’s side, that until the revelation of Veronika Popova a few years back was devoid of female sprint freestylers. The Russians only finished 4th, but without 17-year old Maria Baklakova, 19-year old Rozaliya Nasretdniova, and a few of the other young Russians swimming, that’s still a good result. If Russia’s top female sprinters can all hit their peak in Rio, they could wind up on a podium.
9. The French Coaches Made the Right Call. The French men’s 4×100 freestyle relay broke the European Championship record with their time of 3:11.64. They had three swimmers split 47 and their lead off swimmer was 48. That’s despite leaving the countries best-known swimmer, Yannick Agnel, off the relay in either prelims or finals. That story is quickly becoming the early conversation at these championships. He’ll start back in with the 200 free, which is more in his wheel-house this season, on Tuesday, and hopefully things will calm down for him a bit at this meet.
10. Vlad Morozov made his meet debut as the anchor of Russia’s silver-medal winning relay, splitting 47.99 on the anchor. While a sub-48 split is nothing to scoff at, it wasn’t even the best split on his own relay – Alexander Sukhorukov was better in 47.58. In total, 5 swimmers were faster than that on rolling starts in the field.