2023 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 4th – Sunday, July 9th
- Sports and Recreational Center “Milan Gale Muškatirović”, Belgrade, Serbia
- Prelims at 10am local (4am EDT)/Finals at 5pm local (11am EDT)
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
- Livestream
- Day 1 Prelims Recap |Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap
We’re already over halfway through the 2023 European Junior Swimming Championships from Belgrade, Serbia. The teens competing have put up some solid performances on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, culminating with Hungary currently leading the medal table, while Italy and Turkey are also in the trophy mix.
On night 3 we saw Italy’s Sara Curtis capture the girls’ 50m freestyle in a time of 25.14, upgrading her bronze medal finish from the 2022 edition of this competition.
On her performance, Curtis said, “I’m very, very happy. There was a little bit of pressure as it is before the Europeans as it’s an important event and I was excited, but I really wanted to do a good race. It was incredible (to see she my name as number one) and I looked to my Italian friends and they also were very happy, so it was a lot of emotion. Again, I’m very happy.”
Czech Republic swimmer Miroslav Knedla captured his 2nd gold medal of the championships, doubling up on his 50m back victory with a win in the 200m IM.
Knedla hit a mark of 2:00.26 to beat the field by nearly one second, hitting a nice personal best in the process.
“Before I won, I didn’t think I’d go faster than my PB as I thought it was unbeatable or me,” Knedla stated post-race. The crowd helped me. Family cheered me, friends and my coach is a big part of my gold medal.”
Senior World Championships finalist Lana Pudar of Bosnia and Herzegovina dominated the girls’ 100m butterfly, successfully defending her title from last year in Romania.
The 17-year-old star clocked a lifetime best and new BIH record of 56.95, dipping under the 57-second threshold for the first time in her career.
The next-closest competitor was Martine Damborg of Denmark who touched in 58.35.
Pudar exclaimed, “It means so much, especially because the World Championships are coming this month and it means I’m in good form and I’m really happy to finally swim under 57 seconds so it really means a lot to me.
“I really like to compete and I’m really happy as this competition in Belgrade is really close to my home so a lot of my friends and family are here supporting me so I was really excited for this race and this competition so I’m really enjoying this.”
15-year-old Kuzey Tuncelli fired off the second sub-15:00 1500m freestyle time of his career on his way to topping the podium.
The Turk held off Romania’s Vlad-Stefan Stancu who notched a new national record of 15:00.51 to snag silver while Tuncelli’s teammate Emir Batur Albayrak rounded out the podium only .06 behind Stancu in 15:00.57.
“I’m really happy and I didn’t expect that time so I’m feeling so good right now,” Tuncelli said after the final. “My opponents were strong and I would like to congratulate them, but I am of course very happy with the gold medal as it was my plan to try and win.”