As the 2015 European Short Course Championships are set to begin tomorrow, December 2nd, the over 500 participating athletes have arrived and are preparing to take on the stacked field over the 5-day affair.
LEN President Paolo Barelli was present at the opening press conference today in Netanya, Israel, the city in which the meet is being held, and addressed pre-meet security concerns right off the bat. Said Barelli “In these moments, when the world witness worrying events, we are really proud that the LEN Family are united in demonstrating that sport can get beyond all negative feelings and we will have a participation record with 48 nations bringing 500 swimmers to Israel.”
Two swimmers to watch in the competition were also on-hand during the press conference to lend their insight headed into the star-studded event. Hungarian World Champion Laszlo Cseh said of his mindset, “We are in absolute safety here, both in our hotels and in the pool, we have nothing to worry about, just focus on swimming.”
Cseh, who turns 30 years of age on Thursday, December 3rd, also told the press that, “The new methods we apply in practice are working very well, that could be seen in Kazan and I hope I can show something great here as well. If I can get into the final in the 100m fly on Thursday maybe I can have a present for myself on my birthday.” Cseh swam away with the 200m butterfly World Championship title in Kazan, while earning a silver medal in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 50m butterfly events.
Italian 1500m World Champion, Gregorio Paltrinieri expressed his anticipation in racing despite his mid-grind status. Apprehensively, Paltrinieri commented, “True, that in the previous two years I could break the European Record in the top long-course events, but this is going to be a different competition. I’m in the middle of my preparations for Rio, swimming 18-20km per day so I won’t reach my top speed, but racing is always a great fun and I’m really waiting for the race.”
Closer to home, Israeli swimming studs Guy Barnea and Jonathan Koplev have been anxiously awaiting the start of the Championships in their home country. “Watching our home pool transformed into a fantastic venue is something special” Barnea said. “We are all really excited to race in front of our fans and we are ready to give our best.”
Koplev, the first ever long-course European champion from Israel also stated, “I’m not so good in short-course, still, I want to do my best in the 50m back and will see what me and my team-mates can achieve here.”
You can read the entire meet preview, including all the links you’ll need for the event, here.
Doubt Cseh is tapered due to seeing hair.
My Predictions:
50 Fly: 22.31 SILVER
100 Fly: 49.34 GOLD
200 Fly: 1:50.01 GOLD
200 IM: 1:51.97 GOLD
I wouldn’t read too much into that until the meet starts. It’s fairly common to wait until the last minute (night before/morning of) to shave. I don’t see much reason not to taper, with the Olympics not for another 8 months or so. Plenty of time to train up again and work through another couple of macrocycles before tapering again for Rio.
I believe the photo above is an old photo. 🙂
Very looked very good in Kazan, and it looked like how he was could translate into short course, especially the 50 fly. My prediction:
50 Fly: 22.00… Read more »
100 Fly: 48.81
200 Fly: 1:48.59
200 IM: This the one with the question mark, we know his fly is very strong, his back has been strong through out the years as well, and since this is short course I’m not worried, but then his breastroke as been strong but not outstanding through the years, but we haven’t seen it, so this a mystery. And cseh freestyle has been inconsistent, some times its strong and he pulls away, other times he’s faded. So that said, here’s my prediction:
23.41
Would love to see Cseh go under 1:50 for the 200 fly . Breaking 50 in the 100m would be good too . Defiantly think he poses more of a threat than Phelps and Le Clos think