2022 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 5th – Sunday, July 10th
- Otopeni Olympic Swimming Complex, Bucharest, Romania
- LCM (50m)
- Start Times
- Prelims: 10 a.m. local / 3 a.m. ET
- Finals: 5 p.m. local / 10 a.m. ET
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Live Results
- Live Stream
France’s Mary-Ambre Moluh picked up her first career European Junior title on Wednesday in the girls’ 50 backstroke, resetting her Championship Record from the semi-finals en route to a decisive gold medal victory.
Moluh, 16, clocked 27.75 in the semi-finals to erase the previous CR of 27.82, set by Russia’s Daria Vaskina in 2019, and then brought that mark down by one one-hundredth to 27.74 in tonight’s final.
“This is my first big junior meet, and a final is always a complicated thing, I was a bit nervous before it, but now I’m happy with the gold, the first one here for France, which is great,” Moluh said. “I wanted to do a bit better time and there are a lot of things I have to do better even in this 50m back, so I want to work on this for sure.”
Moluh owns a personal best time of 27.63 in the event, set at the French Junior Championships in May, while Vaskina owns the overall European Junior Record at 27.51 from the 2019 World Championships.
Moluh won the 50 back at the French Elite Championships in April (27.70), and also placed second in the 100 back by breaking the 1:00-barrier for the first time in 59.67. Those performances would’ve earned a berth on France’s World Championship roster, but she opted not to compete.
Had she been at Worlds, Moluh’s personal best time in the 50 back would’ve earned her a spot in the final and placed seventh.
Instead deciding to key in on the Euro Juniors this month, Moluh wins her first gold medal at the event after claiming a pair of silvers at last year’s meet in the 100 back and the 400 medley relay. She did not race the 50 back at the 2021 Euro Juniors, though her PB at the time (27.76) would’ve won gold by more than half a second.
Moluh triumphed by nearly six-tenths in this year’s final, as Hungarian Lora Komoroczy (28.31) took second and Belgian Roos Vanotterdijk (28.62) won bronze.