2023 LEN U23 Championships: Coetze & Sates Take Top Seeds On Final Day

2023 LEN U23 SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, August 11th – Sunday, August 13th
• Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre, Dublin, Ireland
• LCM (50m)
• Start Times – Local: Prelims – 9:30 am / Finals – 6:00 pm
• Start Times – EST: Prelims – 4:30 am / Finals – 1:00 pm
• Entries
• SwimSwam Preview
• Start Lists/Live Results
• Live Stream
• Day 1 Prelims Recap / Day 1 Finals Live Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap / Day 2 Finals Live Recap

We’ve entered the third and final day of action at the 2023 LEN U23 Championships in Dublin, Ireland. This morning swimmers set themselves up for more hardware with impressive performances on both the men’s and women’s sides as they charge towards tonight’s finals.

Neza Klancar of Slovenia will try to double up on her 50m free gold from last night by reaping the top spot in the 50m fly.

This morning, the 23-year-old clocked a time of 26.37 to lead the field, followed by Poalnd’s Julia Maik who notched a time of 26.49. Turkey’s Aleyna Ozkan rounded out the top 3 in 26.58.

In addition to taking the individual 50m free last night in a new national record of 24.76, Klancar also wound up on top of the women’s 50m free skins race which was an additional 3 rounds at the end of last night’s finals session.

Lurking in the 7th and 8th seeds in the 50m free this morning are Tessa Giele of the Netherlands and Ellen Walshe of Ireland, the former of whom already won the women’s 50m back on night 1. For Walshe’s part, the University of Tennessee athlete earned silvers in both the 200m IM and the 100m fly here.

Mona McSharry of the host nation clinched lane 4 in the women’s 200m breast, producing an AM outing of 2:27.27. Matching that same time was Denmark’s Clara Rybak-Andersen while Great Britain’s Lilly Booker is also in the mix with a heats outing of 2:27.61.

American Kaitlyn Dobler is lurking as the 6th-seeded swimmer with a heats swim of 2:29.41.

McSharry has a chance to sweep the breaststroke events should she win tonight, having already topped the 50m breast podium in 30.37 and the 100m breast podium in 1:06.69.

South Africa’s Pieter Coetze looked strong in the men’s 100m back, producing a smooth-looking swim of 54.14.

He’ll try to keep ahead of Dutch swimmer Kai van Westering who nabbed the 2nd seed in 54.22 while Great Britain’s Jonathon ‘Jono’ Adam rounded out this morning’s top 3 in 54.25.

American Hunter Tapp secured the 7th seed in 54.71 to also throw his hat into the medal-seeking ring.

Luxembourg’s Ralph Daleiden posted the 2nd-swiftest time of his career en route to claiming lane 4 in the men’s 100m free.

The 20-year-old hit a time of 48.83, a mark which sits only behind his best-ever outing of 48.77 from this year’s World Championships.

A pair of Brits are hunting Daleiden, as Ed Mildred posted 49.01 and Alexander Cahoon logged 49.10 as the respective 2nd and 3rd seeds. Of note, American Aaron Shackell fell to 22nd with a heats result of 50.25.

The women’s 100m free saw Slovenia’s Janja Segel clock 55.28 to capture the pole position. That led a quartet of sub-56 second swimmers which also included Germany’s Nele Schulze (55.45), Great Britain’s Evelyn Davis (55.63) and America’s Grace Cooper (55.70).

Look for Segel to turn on the speed during the medal-contending race as the 22-year-old owns a personal best of 54.26 in this event and took 2022 Mediterranean Games silver in a time of 54.48.

Additional Top Seeds

• Isabelle Stadden of the United States continued her momentum from the 100m back victory last night, capturing the top seed in the 200m back. The Cal Bear hit a time of 2:11.66 to hold an over-one-second advantage ahead of the next-closest swimmer Aviv Barzelay of Israel who notched 2:12.74. Of note, Pland’s Adela Piskorska did not start this event, despite having taken 100m back silver last night.
• Another American Mitchell Mason scored the top seed in the men’s 100m breast, registering a time of 1:00.25. That checks in as the 2nd-swiftest time of the Lousiana State University swimmer’s career. He’s been under the minute mark once thus far, owning a career-quickest time of 59.87 from this year’s U.S. Nationals. Mason will be flanked by Dutchman Koen De Groot who touched in 1:00.36 while British swimmer Greg Butler will be on his other side in tonight’s final after his morning outing of 1:00.82.
• The men’s 200m IM saw Dominik Torok of Hungary log a morning swim of 2:00.38 with South Africa’s Matt Sates right behind in 2:00.44. Sates won last night’s 400m IM by just .01 over Germany’s Cedric Buessing. so he’ll be seeking a double during tonight’s final. Buessing missed the final of this shorter event, registering 2:03.24 as the 15th-place finisher out of the heats. Rex Maurer of the United States secured the 7th seed in 2:01.49 while Gabriel Jett of the U.S. wound up not starting.
• In a USA-less men’s 50m fly, it was Greek ace Stergios-Marios Bilas who powered his way to the top spot in 23.43. Immediately behind was Austria’s national record holder Simon Bucher in 23.58 while Great Britain’s Lewis Fraser and Norwegian 50m freestyle silver medalist Nicholas Lia were also in the mix. Bilas busted out the fastest swim of his life last night to reap gold in the 50m free, clocking 21.83 to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.