LINZ, Austria, July 11. RUSSIAN and Hungarian age groupers dominated the first day of competition at the European Junior Championships in Linz, Austria. The meet is for 15-16 year-old girls and 17-18 year-old boys.
Of the eight events contested, Russia won four and Hungary took two. France and Great Britain each won one.
France, however, accounted for the sole European broken on Day One. The French men's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team clocked 3:24.12, breaking the old mark of 3:24.83 set by Great Britain in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1997.
Russians swept all three men's individual events. Yuri Prilukov, 18, trounced the field in the 200m freestyle, finishing in 1:50.26, two seconds ahead of teammate Evgeni Natsvin, 17 (1:52.27).
In the 50m back, Arkadi Viatchanin, slipped by Finland's Mamu Mantymaki, 17, by the slimmest of margins, 26.64 to 26.65.
The 400 IM saw another close race as Igor Berezutsky, 18, outlasted Hungary's Laszlo Cseh. Berezutsky's 4:19.81 was only half a second off the EJR mark, while Cseh finished four-tenths behind the winner (4:20.24).
The Hungarian women were almost as dominant as the Russian men, taking two of the three individual events.
In the 200 fly, Krisztina Lipcsei, 16, led a one-two Magyar sweep with her 2:13.45. Teammate Renata Papp was a strong second in 2:14.50, with the rest of the field well in arrears.
In the 400 IM, Diana Remenyi, 16, reversed the result of the men's race, touching in 4:46.20 to Russia's Yana Talkacheva's 4:46.83.
Great Britain's Kate Haywood was the only swimmer in the bottom of her age group to win an event. Haywood, 15, clocked 32.54 in the 50 breaststroke, just ahead of Slovenia's Tamara Sambrailo (32.62).
Russia won the 4 x 200m freE relay in 8:14.59, almost three second ahead of runner-up, Italy.