Stancu Cracks Romanian 1500 Free Record on Home Soil at Euro Junior Championships

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
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• Day 3 Finals Live Recap

16-year-old Vlad-Stefan Stancu broke the Romanian national 1500 free record to win gold at the 2022 European Junior Championships, a record set before he was born.

Stancu cracked the previous record, set at 15:06.33 by Dragos Coman back at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, by nearly one second. He touched the wall first with a time of 15:05.47. Coman ultimately placed 7th in the Olympic final.

Stancu had a tight race with Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski through the 1350-meter-mark, but something clicked for Stancu on his third-to-last 50 where he split a 27.80 (after holding steady high 30’s and low 31’s.) The Romanian crowd became electric as they watched their swimmer pull ahead with less than 200 meters to go.

He continued to build that lead and touched the wall first with a 7-second lead over the field. The stadium chanted his name as he stood atop the medal podium.

This was a lifetime best time for Stancu by about 15 seconds. His previous best time was a 15:20.87 from the 2021 European Junior Championships where he placed 7th.

Originally reported by YanYan Li:

BOYS’ 1500 FREESTYLE — FINAL

• World Record: 14:31.02 – Sun Yang, CHN (2012)
• European Record: 14:32.80 — Gregorio Paltrinieri, ITA (2022)
• World Junior Record: 14:46.09 — Franko Grgic, CRO (2019)
• European Junior Record: 14:46.09 — Franko Grgic, CRO (2019)
• European Junior Championship Record: 15:01.59 — Krill Martynychev, RUS (2019)
• 2021 European Junior Champion: Mert Kilavuz (TUR) —15:02.22

Podium:

1. Vlad-Stefan Stancu, ROM — 15:05.47
2. Krzysztof Chmielewski, POL — 15:13.36
3. Emir Batur Albayrak, TUR — 15:15.24

Vlad-Stefan Stancu and Krzysztof Chmielewski were engaged in an extremely close race for 1350 meters, being separated by just a few hundred-seconds for the majority of their swim. However, Stancu turned on the jets in the final portion of his race, splitting a massive 27.80 on his third-to-last 50 (the only sub-29 non first 50 split of the field) to charge home in a Romanian record time of 15:05.47, taking gold in his home country. He takes down Dragos Coman‘s 18 year old record of 15:06.33 from 2004.

Stancu’s time was a massive personal best, taking almost 15 seconds off his old mark of 15:20.87 from last year.

Chmielewski, the 200 fly champion, ended up finishing 7.99 seconds behind Stancu in a time of 15:13.46, a bit off his prelims time of 15:12.31.