Defending 400 Free Gold Medalist Boglarka Kapas Withdraws From Final In Glasgow

2019 LEN EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, December 4th – Sunday, December 8th
• Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
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The final night of competition here in Glasgow is set to get underway just hours from now and we’ve seen a couple of shake-ups for the evening’s events.

Russian Arina Surkova had claimed the 6th seed in the women’s 50m freestyle prelims this morning at Tollcross with a time of 24.15, but the 21-year-old has relinquished her spot in tonight’s semi-final. She swam on her nation’s women’s medley relay prelim squad, which claimed the top seed, so it’s presumed she’ll be on the final squad as well to try and get her country on top of the podium.

British 100m and 200m freestyle European Short Course champion here, Freya Anderson, has given up her spot in this 50m free sprint in favor of the 400m freestyle also in tonight’s session. Anderson was 10th in the 50m free with a morning effort of 24.32, while she earned the 8th slot in the 400m free with a time of 4:04.37.

Surkova’s and Anderson’s 50m free absences allow both Neza Klancar and Nina Kost of Slovenia and Switzerland, respectively, to enter tonight’s semi-final. But not before they had already raced a swim-off to claim the top reserve spot earlier after the prelims.

Another scratch came in the form of Hungarian Bolgarka Kapas’ withdrawal from the 400m free final. The Olympic bronze medalist in the 800m free had claimed the 4th seed in 4:02.98, but is absent from tonight’s start lists. That means Leonie Kullmann of German gets to join teammate Isabel Gose, with the Germans swimming side-by-side in lanes 7 and 8.

Kapas took gold in this 400m free event 2 years ago in Copenhagen, which means we’ll see a new woman crowned champion when all is said and done tonight.

Kapas took the gold in 2017 in a time of 3:58.15 and was 4:04.84 in the heats, which means her 4:02.98 this morning was quicker than her heat in 2 years ago. She had earlier contested the 400m IM and 200m fly here in Glasgow but did not advance in either due to the 2-per-nation rule.