2016 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Monday, May 16th – Sunday, May 22nd
- Prelims: 10:00 AM (London Time) / 5:00 AM (Eastern Time)
- Finals: 6:00 PM (London Time) / 1:00 PM (Eastern Time)
- London Aquatics Center, London, UK
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Stream
As reported by James Sutherland:
The first finals session of the 2016 European Championships in London went off tonight, and Ukraine’s Andriy Govorov showed he is on great form. After putting up the top time in the men’s 50 fly heats in 23.00, Govorov threw down the fastest textile swim in history in the semi-finals of 22.73, breaking the old mark of 22.76 set by Brazil’s Cesar Cielo in 2012.
Govorov’s swim was not only the fastest textile time ever, it was also a new European Championship record and a new Ukrainian record. Both records were set by Govorov at this meet two years ago in Berlin, where Govorov posted a time of 22.87 in the heats. He would go onto tie for bronze, losing out to Florent Manaudou (FRA) and Yauhen Tsurkin (BLR) and tying with Ben Proud (GBR). Manaudou and Tsurkin tied for gold in 23.00, slower than Govorov was in the prelims.
The previous textile best by Cielo was set at the Maria Lenk Trophy in 2012, where he broke the Americas record and the world textile best in one fell swoop. The Americas record still stands.
Govorov heads into the final tomorrow night as the clear favorite for gold, as the next closest in the semi-finals was the man he tied with for bronze two years ago, Ben Proud. Proud posted a time of 23.42, 0.69 off of Govorov. There are many men in the 23.5-23.7 range, but none look like they have a shot at touching Govorov if he comes anywhere close to what he went in the semi-final.
The 50 freestyle will be Govorov’s only other race of the meet.