2019 BLACK SEA CUP
- Friday, June 7th – Sunday, June 9th
- Bulgaria
- Results
Meet Highlights
Over 400 swimmers representing 44 clubs took part in the 2nd edition of the Black Sea Cup in Bulgaria over the weekend. Athletes from England, Turkey, Latvia, Hungary and more took to the pool in the meet that serves as a World Championships qualifier, per FINA.
One national record bit the dust over the course of the 3-day competition, courtesy of Yordan Yanchev of Bulgaria. Entering the meet, Yanchev’s personal best in the 400m free doubled as his nation’s standard with the 3:51.11 he hit in April of this year.
At this Black Sea Cup, however, the 18-year-old managed to shave just under a second of that PB to score a new NR of 3:50.25. That won the race by over 10 seconds this weekend and puts Yanchev on the border of breaking the 3:50 threshold, something that he was far from when clocking 3:56.90 for 17th place at last year’s Youth Olympic Games. His time tonight would have finished 5th in the men’s 400m free final there in Buenos Aires.
Yanchev would claim the 100m free and 200m free victories before the Black Sea Cup ended, capturing times of 51.23 and 1:49.81, respectively. Those times were near his personal bests, with his fastest 100m free ever rested at 51.13, while his 200m free PB is represented by his 1:49.65, both from April of this year.
Turkish National Record holder Ekaterina Avramova did damage across the women’s backstroke events, collecting a trio of wins to sweep the discipline. Avramova took the 50m in 29.25, the 100m in 1:02.08 and the 200m in 2:12.53. She holds the Turkish records in all 3 events.
A British swimmer got on teh board in teh form of Lucy Thornton, with the Ealing swimmer notching the 200m fly win in 2:14.91. That’s just .14 off of the 20-year-old’s own personal best of 2:14.77 clocked at the British Swimming Championships in Glasgow earlier this year for silver in the Transition Final.