Italy Takes Home Euro’s 2021 Championships Trophy Title

2021 LEN EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, November 2nd – Sunday, November 7th
• Aquatics Palace, Kazan Russia
• SCM (25m)
• Event page
• Results

While the Russians topped the medal table with 8 golds at the 2021 Short Course Euros in Kazan, it was Italians who topped the points standings for the Championships Trophy. The Championships Trophy standings score out to the top 16 finishers in each event, which provides a little more context into team depth than the medal count. The scoring system is as follows: 

Individual events:

• Places 1 – 8: 18,16,15,14,13,12,11,10 points
• Places 9 -16: 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 points

Relay events: 

• Places 1 – 8: 36,32,30,28,26,24,22,20 points

At the end of the final night, the Italians came out on top, barely sneaking past the Russian hosts by 22 points, 1073 to 1051. The full Championships Trophy standings can be found here.

Top five combined team scores

1. Italy: 1073
2. Russia: 1051
3. Netherlands: 580
4. Sweden: 365
5. Poland: 328

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The team scores race quickly turned into a two country contest, with Italy and Russia clearly separating themselves from the field early and eventually both countries nearly doubled the point total from the third place Dutch. 

The Italian were led by their men’s squad, which took the men’s team title with 543 points, just topping Russia’s men’s total of 539. The Russian women, led by triple winner Anastasia Kirpichnikova, took the women’s team title with 482 points, just ahead of Italy’s 466. The Netherlands, which won both mixed relays, scored 72 points in the mixed category. 

The fatal blow for the Russians was their disqualification of their mixed 4×50 free relay, which ended up costing them the Championships Trophy title. Italy’s 22 point margin of victory was a result of a 34 point margin over the Russians in the mixed relays, which would have been erased without the Russian DQ. 

The Netherlands finished third in the Trophy standings, putting up 225 men’s points and 283 women’s points. The Dutch were led by Kira Toussaint, who swept all three of the women’s backstroke races, and their winning mixed relays. The Dutch mixed 4×50 medley narrowly broke the World Record  on the final night of competition in 1:36.18

Sweden’s 4th place finish was led by their women’s team, which scored 240 points. World Record holder Sarah Sjostrom was one of the stars of the meet, having won individual titles in the 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly and 100 fly, while also taking the bronze in the 100 IM. Despite the fourth place finish, Sweden’s men’s team was very weak, having finished well outside the top 10 in men’s team scores. 

Poland rounded out the top five countries, narrowly edging out Turkey 159 to 153.