2019 LEN EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, December 4th – Sunday, December 8th
- Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
- SCM
- Entry List
The 2019 LEN European Short Course Championships kick off Wednesday in Glasgow, and ahead of the meet, some of Europe’s biggest stars convened to speak on the opportunity at hand.
Olympic, world and European champion Florent Manaudou — staging a comeback — spoke on what it’s like to be back at Euros.
“It’s great to be back this time as a swimmer. In 2018 I was here as a commentator, it was fun to follow the event from the stands but now I try to have some fun in the pool as well,” Manaudou said. “I see that I’m progressing, I enjoyed swimming in the autumn but I won’t make any prediction for this event. I just want to have a good time here and I’m sure we’ll have.”
Great Britain’s Siobhan O’Connor, an Olympic silver medalist and European champion who won six medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, discussed what it’s like to swim in Glasgow again.
“We are all thrilled and happy to be back to Glasgow, the entire team is excited to race in front of our fans again. We all have fond memories from here, my fondest once perhaps are from the 2014 Commonwealth Games,” she said. “I have no specific plans for these championships, I just wish to have fun and enjoy racing in the next five days.”
Olympic, world and European champion Gregorio Paltrinieri, of Italy, explained his dual open water and pool ambitions. He also touched on the quality of European distance swimming at the present moment.
“The 1500m is getting tougher and tougher, even though Florian [Wellbrock] is not here, we have Mykhailo [Romanchuk] who also beat me last year and other guys are also improving spectacularly,” Paltrinieri said. “I’m looking forward to racing with them and hopefully having some better results than in 2018 which was not my best event.”
Regarding his open water career, Paltrinieri said he’s curretly focused on the pool.
“There is no preference for either pool swimming and open water swimming. After Rio I decided to try something different, I enjoy open water, had some fine swims but as of now I’m here and focusing on the pool and this meet.”
The youngest member of the group, European champion teenager Kliment Kolesnikov of Russia, was asked whether he could match his long course 50 back world-record-setting performance from 2018.
“I cannot tell you if I am able to repeat that performance,” he said. “For sure, the European Championships in Glasgow was a fantastic event for me, but this summer I had some problems, so I couldn’t deliver the same good results. Now I’m fine, I work hard, have good practices, that’s all I need to perform well again.”