VALETTA, Malta, July 9. THE kids have arrived!
On the third day of the 2001 European Junior Championships here today, Greece's Ioannis Drymonakos and Hungary's Viktor Bodrogi were the stars of the show on the boys' side. Among the ladies Ukraine's Aliaksandra Herasimenia was a double winner and Greece's Zoi Dimoschaki set a pr-NR en route to a win in the 400 free.
Drymonakos, who'd like nothing better than to emulate the feat of trackster Konstadinos Kederis, who was the surprise Olympic gold last year in the 200 meter dash -except he'd prefer to do it in the pool at Fukuoka – won the 200 fly this evening in a meet-record 1:59.51, not far off his national-record 1:59.16 from the Akropolis Invitational last May in Athens (16th-fastest on the yearly list).
Runner-up was 200 back record-setter Bodrogi, who went a pr 1:59.75, down from his career-best of 2:01+ earlier this season. Bodrogi's next goal is his country's national 200 fly record of 1:58.25 by quadruple Olympic gold medalist Tamas Darnyi, who set his mark a decade ago in Perth at the 1991 World Championships.
Darnyi won his Big O's golds in both IMs at Seoul (1988) and Barcelona four years later.
Making sure that Drymonakos didn't feel lonely at the top, teammate Dimoschaki splashed to a pr-NR 4:11.59 victory in the 400 free. The 15-year-old Greek youngster was all of 136th globally last year with a then pr of 4:19.37, and now she's fifth globally for 2001. She ranks ahead of, for example, America's Diana Munz, who had the fastest time at the US Trials with a 4:11.63, though she swam that time to win the consols.
Herasimenia showed her heels to the field in the 100 free, where she went a pr 56.92, then came back to take numero uno in the 50 back (29.55 to France's Laure Manaudou's 29.71). One presumes her goals for the future include something along the lines of duplicating the feat of Yana Klochkova, who was Sydney gold medalist in both IMs, the 400 in world-record time and the 200 with the second-fastest performance ever.
In the 50 butterfly, Italy's Cristina Maccagnola won handily, 27.26-27.99 for Holland's Inge Dekker. Germany's Catherine Friedrich (28.43) won the bronze.
In the other men's event, Russia's Sergei Lioubimov won the 50 breast in a tight race with Slovenia's Matiaz Markic, 29.25-29.29, with Iceland's Jon Oddur Sigurdsson (29.44) third.
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Through a transmission error in yesterday's report, we incorrectly said that Bodrogi went 1:59.91 to win the 200 back. His correct time, 1:59.29, is not only a pr but also breaks the old Hungarian record of 1:59.31 by Tamas Deutsch from the 1994 World Championships.
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Central American-Caribbean Championships
At the Central American-Caribbean Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Jamaica's Janelle Atkinson, who competes colelgiately in the United States for the University of FLorida and will represent her country in Japan in two weeks, won her fourth gold of the meet via a 1:06.69 100 back clocking.
And former University of Southern California standout Josh Illika, who represents Mexico, won the 100 fly in 55.43. His pr-NR and Central American record is 53.78 from last year's Janet Evans Invitational in Los Angeles.
Illika was expected to swim at this year's Evans meet in a couple of weeks but has decided instead to compete in something a tad more important — the
World Championships.
— Bill Bell
2001 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Valetta, Malta
July 9, 2001
50 M pool
• = National Record
Girls born 1984-later
Boys born 1983-later
WOMEN'S EVENTS
100 METER FREESTYLE
FINAL
Aliak. Herasimenia, BLR 56.92
Agata Korc, POL 57.33
Celina Lemmen, NED 57.47
Ida Mattsson, SWE 57.58
Vicky Cook, GBR 57.63
Ekaterina Nasyrova, RUS 57.78
Maria Fuster, ESP 57.85
Anna Stylianou, CYP 57.97
400 METER FREESTYLE
FINAL
Zoi Dimoschaki, GRE 4:11.59*
Eva Resztov, HUN 4:16.17
Olga Beresnyeva, UKR 4:16.43
Natascha Kraus, GER 4:20.74
Claire Johnson, GBR 4:21.19
Daria Beliakina, RUS 4:21.27
Lioudmila Machkovtseva, RUS 4:23.65
Ida Mattsson, SWE 4:29.08
50 METER BACKSTROKE
FINAL
Aliak. Herasimenia, BLR 29.55
Laure Manaudou, FRA 29.71
Louise Ornstedt, DEN 30.02
Anja Carman, SLO 30.55
Ekaterina Loparvea, RUS 30.58
Iryna Ashennikova, UKR 30.83
Stefanie Luiken, NED 31.13
Aleksandra Bas, BLR 31.78
50 METER BUTTERFLY
FINAL
Cristina Maccagnola, ITA 27.26
Inge Dekker, NED 27.99
Catherine Friedrich, GER 28.43
Fabienne Nadarajah, AUT 28.48
Linda Knutsson, SWE 28.81
Thea Vangggaard Nielson, DEN 28.84
Filipa Silva, POR 28.87
Caroline Drab, SWE 28.87
400 M FREESTYLE RELAY
FINAL
Germany 3:50.42
Spain 3:54.41
Russia 3:54.47
Italy 3:54.61
Sweden 3:55.02
Switzerland 3:58.02
Greece 4:04.02
Czech Republic DQ
800 M FREESTYLE RELAY
FINAL
Hungary 8:19.19
Russia 8:20.91
Germany 8:21.45
Italy 8:27.80
Sweden 8:28.00
Greece 8:28.01
France 8:30.24
Belgium 8:41.39
MEN'S EVENTS
50 METER BREASTSTROKE
FINAL
Sergei Lioubimov, RUS 29.25
Matiaz Markic, SLO 29.29
Jon Oddur Sigurdsson, ISL 29.44
Mate Humor, HUN 29.49
Thijs Van Valkengoed, NED 29.68
Joakim Nielsen, SWE 29.75
Jan Papenbrock, GER 29.78
Robert Lee, GBR 29.80
200 METER BUTTERFLY
FINAL
Ioannis Drymonakos, GRE 1:59.51
Viktor Bodrogi, HUN 1:59.75
Sergiy Advena, UKR 2:01.65
Francesco Vespe, ITA 2:01.78
Mark Lewis, GBR 2:02.31
Manuel Aberle, GER 2:03.42
Lukasz Drzewinski, POL 2:03.81
Ivo Carneiro, POR 2:06.21
400 M FREESTYLE RELAY
FINAL
Germany 3:26.68
France 3:27.05
Russia 3:28.37
Italy 3:28.52
Spain 3:29.10
Sweden 3:31.45
Poland 3:31.76
Portuga; 3:32.45
800 M FREESTYLE RELAY
FINAL
France 7:31.15
Germany 7:31.72
Russia 7:31.91
Greece 7:37.82
Spain 7:40.99
Portugal 7:46.13
Belgium 7:47.02
Sweden 7:47.10