Three Sprint Records Downed at Day 3 of Turkish Championships

TURKISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS DAY 3

• Dates: May 25-29, 2016
• Location: Mersin, Turkey
• Live Results

Breaststroke phenom Viktoria Zeynep Gunes was a double-winner, and three sprint national records were shattered on day three of the 2016 Turkish Swimming Championships in Mersin.

Gunes, a 17-year-old, five-time World Junior Championship gold medalist, followed up her dominant  400-meter IM from earlier in the meet with national titles in the 50-meter breaststroke (32.30) and 200-meter IM (2:14.01).  Between coming off European Championships in London and preparing for Rio in August, both of those swims were well off her national record standards.

The performance of the evening, however, was a toss-up between the four swimmers who set new Turkish national records.  First up was 19-year-old Huseyin Emre Sakci in the 50-meter breaststroke, who came out ahead of his 29-year-old veteran teammate Demir Atasoy (the previous record holder in the event) with a time of 27.84.  Atasoy, whose previous national record stood at 28.04, was second in 28.21.

In the next event, Ekaterina Avramova dominated the women’s 50-meter backstroke and slipped under her own national record with a final time of 28.41.  Avramova, who swam internationally for Bulgaria until 2014, put together a career-best meet earlier this month in London, where she set new Turkish national marks in all three women’s long course backstroke events.

Not to be outdone, Doruk Tekin recaptured the men’s 50-meter backstroke national record in a tight race with previous record-holder Baskalov Iskender.  Less than two weeks ago, Tekin set a new national standard of 25.84 in prelims at the European Championships, only for Iskender to come back one heat later and touch in 25.81.  Tekin, however, managed to find another gear this weekend to reclaim the record in 25.70.  Iskender finished second in 26.00.

Alpkan Ornek was the final record-setter of the evening, with a new standard in the men’s 200-meter IM.  After falling nearly 1.5 seconds behind Metin Aydin at the 100 mark, Ornek roared past his countryman over the final 75 meters to finish in 2:01.84, just under his previous mark of 2:01.99.  Aydin was second in 2:02.65.

Other winners on the evening were Nida Eliz Ustundag in the women’s 200-meter fly (2:10.76, just off her own national record of 2:10.23), Taha Adibeke in the men’s 200-meter fly (2:00.58), and Maksym Shemberev in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle (15:26.12).