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Mykhailo Romanchuk Speeds Past Paltrinieri to Set Ukrainian 1500 Record – 14:36.10

2022 EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

MEN’S 1500 FREESTYLE – FINAL

  1. Mykhailo Romanchuk (UKR), 14:36.10
  2. Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA), 14:39.79
  3. Damien Joly (FRA), 14:50.86
  4. Domenico Acerenza (ITA), 14:56.15
  5. Florian Wellbrock (GER), 15:02.51
  6. Carlos Garach Benito (ESP), 15:05.11
  7. Henrik Christiansen (NOR), 15:07.98
  8. Oliver Klemet (GER), 15:10.57

The crowd was behind Italian superstar Gregorio Paltrinieri in tonight’s final of the men’s 1500 free, but Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk quickly silenced the stands. Early on, Paltrinieri was in control and it seemed like he might pull away from the field in the same manner he did at the World Championships earlier this summer. Right around the 400m mark, however, Romanchuk began to make his move, cutting into Paltrinieri’s lead and officially overtaking him at the 550m mark. From that point, the race was all Romanchuk, as he continued to speed his way down the pool.

He roared into the finish in 14:36.10, establishing a new lifetime best and breaking the Ukrainian Record in the process. There’s a lot to unpack with this swim. Firstly, we have to note that Romanchuk was able to accomplish this feat despite the war waging in his home country currently. When Russia invaded Ukraine earlier in the year, Romanchuk, alongside his fellow Ukrainian swimmers, was displaced. Various swimming federations around Europe opened their arms to become sanctuaries for Ukraine’s swimmers to continue training after fleeing their homes. Romanchuk ended up in Germany, training with fellow distance star Florian Wellbrock, which he’s been doing since mid-March.

The previous Ukrainian Record was set by Romanchuk 4 years ago, at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow. Romanchuk swam a 14:36.88 for Silver at those Championships, coincidentally touching just behind his current training partner: Florian Wellbrock (14:36.15). Here is a split comparison between Romanchuk’s previous record from 2018 and his performance tonight in Rome:

Splits 2022 European Championships Finals 2018 European Championships Finals
100m 56.35 57.55
200m 58.33 58.56
300m 58.08 58.85
400m 58.25 59.12
500m 58.52 59.27
600m 58.53 59.36
700m 58.53 59.00
800m 58.44 58.93
900m 58.70 58.77
1000m 58.61 58.78
1100m 58.46 58.35
1200m 58.36 58.29
1300m 58.86 58.22
1400m 59.31 58.00
1500m 58.78 55.83
FINAL TIME 14:36.10 14:36.88

Despite the swims ultimately coming in a nearly the same time, Romanchuk swam his race tonight rather differently than he did in 2018. In 2018, Romanchuk was steady through the middle of the race and closed very fast. Tonight, he was holding a faster pace early on, and didn’t really fade at any point, but didn’t have nearly the same closing speed he did 4 years ago.

With performance, Romanchuk also moves up into the top 5 all-time performers in the event, landing at #4. Here is the current list of the all-time top 5 performers in the men’s LCM 1500 free:

Rank Time Swimmer Meet
1 14:31.02 Sun Yang 2012 Olympics
2 14:32.80 Gregorio Paltrinieri 2022 World Championships
3 14:34.56 Grant Hackett 2001 World Champs
4 14:36.10 Mykhailo Romanchuk 2022 European Championships
5 14:36.15 Florian Wellbrock 2018 European Championships

Additionally, Romanchuk’s swim tonight marks the 10th fastest 1500 of all-time. Although he’s not the World Record holder, Paltrinieri has been faster than Romanchuk’s time tonight a whopping 5 times in his career.

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Hank
2 years ago

Video?

NB1
2 years ago

that was a smart and beautiful swim, well deserved. He has the World record in him

Oleg
2 years ago

Amazing job. Really proud of Mykhailo

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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