2024 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 2nd – Sunday, July 7th
- Prelims at 9:30am local/Finals at 6pm local
- Lazdynai Pool, Vilnius, Lithuania
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Finals Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap/Day 4 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream ($)
Day 5 of the 2024 European Junior Championships represents the penultimate day of action in Lithuania. Budding stars wasted no time putting markers down on some of the remaining events to help move their nations up the ever-changing medal table.
Croatian Vlaho Nenadic staked his claim on the boys’ 100m freestyle, topping the field with a morning outing of 49.29. That checks in as the World Junior Championships finalist’s best time ever, surpassing the 49.50 logged in Netanya last year.
The top 5 performers this morning were all under the 50-second barrier, with a pair of Italians, Carlos D’Ambrosio and Lorenzo Ballarati turning in respective times of 49.41 and 49.64. Ballarati grabbed the gold in last night’s 50m free.
Serbia’s Justin Cvetkov and Great Britain’s Gabriel Shepherd were next, claiming the 4th and 5th seeds in efforts of 49.67 and 49.96.
Tajus Juska of the host nation lurks as the 8th-seeded swimmer thus far, reaching 50.21 while his teammate and 200m free champion here Kristupas Trepocka earned the 13th seed in 50.51.
Already a bronze medalist in the girls’ 50m back, Blythe Kinsman of Great Britain will try to double up with a victory in the 100m event.
Kinsman clocked a morning swim of 1:01.97 to earn the top seed ahead of Hungary’s Lora Komoroczy who notched 1:02.04 shortly ahead of Spain’s Sara Costa de Vicente‘s 1:02.07.
Kinsman owns a lifetime best of 1:00.73 in this race, a time she posted when finishing 4th at this year’s Aquatics GB Olympic Trials.
France is still seeking its first gold of these championships and Lucine Allart put her hat in the ring with a 4th-seeded swim of 1:02.13, already a new PB by .18.
Spain’s 200m back champion here, Estella Llum Tonrath Nollgen is very much in the mix, hitting 1:02.26 for the 5th seed.
Racing in her only event at these championships, Eneli Jefimova of Estonia demonstrated her dominance by taking the top seed in the girls’ 100m breast by over 2 seconds.
Jefimova touched in 1:06.36 (31.14/35.22) with the next-closest swimmer represented by Britain’s Jasmine Carter who clocked 1:08.99.
17-year-old Jefimova’s outing already outperforms the 1:06.81 she produced en route to taking the gold at the 2023 edition of this competition. It also undercut the time of 1:06.41 she posted just last month as she won gold at the senior European Championships.
A competition record went down at the hands of Spanish swimmer Teo del Riego Torres in the boys’ 50m fly.
18-year-old Torres ripped a morning result of 23.41 to hack .31 off his previous lifetime best to establish himself as the athlete to beat over the next 2 rounds.
Austria’s Lukas Edl posted 23.85 while Italy’s Daniele Momoni was right behind in 23.88.
French swimmers Alexandre Phillips and Ethan Dumesnil were also under the 24-second threshold, turning in respective times of 23.93 and 23.99.
Dumesnil was the silver medalist in this event last year, registering 23.90 in Belgrade.
Additional Top Seeds
- Subajr Biltaev of Germany posted the sole time of the boys’ 100m breaststroke field under 1:02, logging 1:01.97 for the top spot in tonight’s semi-final. He already earned 50m breast silver at these championships. A pair of British teammates are among those who will chase him, as Filip Nowacki earned the 2nd seed in 1:02.06 and Max Morgan sits 5th in 1:02.48.
- Italy’s Daniele del Signore registered a mark of 55.14 as the top-seeded swimmer in the boys’ 100m back. He’ll try to keep Ireland’s John Shortt at bay, with Shortt just .11 behind in 55.25. Last night in the 200m back Shortt became Ireland’s first gold medalist since the 2017 version of these championships.
- Denmark’s Martine Damborg was the quickest girls’ 50m butterflier of the morning, stopping the clock at 26.50. Damborg is seeking her 2nd gold after topping the 100m fly earlier in the meet. Jana Pavalic of Croatia, the 50m free silver medalist, is in the hunt after logging 26.53 in the heats.
- Phoebe Cooper of Great Britain turned in a time of 2:15.71 to hold a healthy advantage over the girls’ 200m IM field. Laura Cabanes Garzas of Spain was next in line at 2:16.53 and Germany’s Linda Roth was just .01 off that in 2:16.54. Garzas already earned bronze in the 400m IM event.
- The nation of Italy will try to retain its gold from last year in the boys’ 4x200m freestyle relay. The combination of Alessandro Ragaini (1:49.17), D’Ambrosio (1:48.93), Jacopo Barbotti (1:49.98) and Gabriele Valente (1:50.16), collectively stopped the clock at 7:18.24 in a dominant display. The next-closest squad was Germany who was over 5 seconds back in 7:23.39. Great Britain rounded out the top 3 performers of the heats in 7:24.49.