Day 3 of the European Championships kicked off with Sunday’s preliminary session in Glasgow, Scotland.
Many of the world’s best swimmers look to battle for supremacy and clinch spots in semi-finals later in the day. Many of those top swimmers didn’t qualify for the semis because of the rule that only two from each country can advance. There were even a couple of 1-2-3 sweeps by different countries.
Here is a look at what happened during prelims:
Order of events
Men’s 200 IM
Women’s 200 Fly
Men’s 100 Back
Women’s 200 Free
Men’s 200 Breast
Men’s 4×200 Free Relay
Men’s 200 IM
Great Britain went 1-2-3 in another event, which means another title contender will not be able to advance to the semi-finals.
Mark Szaranek took the top seed at 1:58.07, followed by compatriot Max Litchfield (1:58.12). Duncan Scott finished third at 1:58.57 but because by rule only two swimmers from each country can advance, he is the tough-luck competitor.
Spain’s Oliveira de Gonzalez took fourth at 1:58.99, followed by Greece’s Andreas Vazaios (1:59.40) and Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches (1:58.99).
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Women’s 200 Fly
The second event of the day also saw a hard-luck swimmer left out of qualifying for the semi-finals despite finishing in the top five during preliminaries, this time though, it wasn’t because of a 1-2-3 sweep.
Great Britain’s Alys Thomas took the top seed in 2:07.86, followed by Germany’s Franziska Hentke (2:08.93).
Hungary took the next three spots, leaving one out of the semifinals. Lillian Szilagyi was third in 2:09.02, followed by Boglarka Kapas (2:09.29) and Zsuzsanna Jakabos (2:09.46), who will miss out on the semifinals after being edged by a 17 hundredths of a second.
A three-way tie for sixth saw Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova, Portugal’s Ana Catarina Monteiro and Italy’s Alessia Polieri each go 2:10.08.
Italy’s Ilaria Cusinato was next at 2:10.34, followed by compatriot Ilaria Bianchi (2:10.43), who will miss out after being the third-fastest finisher from Italy.
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Men’s 100 Back
Make it three-for-three on high-profile athletes missing out on the semi-finals because of the strength of their country.
Russia completed a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 back, meaning just two will advance. Evgeny Rylov took the top seed in the event at 52.91. Kliment Kolesnikov was second at 53.01, followed by Grigory Tarasevich (53.34), who will miss the semis.
Italy’s Simone Sabbioni took the fourth seed (53.95), followed by Romania’s Robert Glinta (54.01) and Greece’s Apostolos Christou (54.40).
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Women’s 200 Free
The fourth event of the day finally saw some parity among nations as the top six qualifiers for the semi-finals were from different countries.
Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands took the top seed in 1:58.14. France’s Charlotte Bonnet wasn’t far behind at 1:58.30.
The third seed went to Russia’s Anastasia Guzhenkova, who finished in 1:58.81. Britain’s Holly Hibbott was fourth at 1:59.92, Spain’s Melanie Costa Schmid was fifth at 1:59.010 and Germany’s Reva Foos was sixth at 1:59.03 before another British swimmer, Eleanor Faulkner was seventh (1:59.19) to give one country two in the top eight.
But Britain had three in the top eight as Kathryn Greenslade was eighth at 1:59.26, but will not qualify for the semi-finals.
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Men’s 200 Breast
Another 1-2-3 finish concluded the individual events for the morning’s prelims as Russia swept the top three spots in the men’s 200 breast.
Anton Chupkov took the top seed at 2:08.70, 23 hundredths off of the meet record.
Compatriot Kirill Prigoda was second at 2:08.91, while Ilya Khomenko was the odd man out, finishing third at 2:09.63.
Italy’s Luca Pizzini was fourth at 2:10.18, followed by Britain’s Ross Murdoch (2:10.30) and James Wilby (2:10.81).
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Men’s 4×200 Free Relay
Russia took the top seed in the men’s 4×200 free relay to close out the session.
Martin Malyutin, Viacheslav Andrusenko, Danila Izotov and Mikhail Vekovischev finished in 7:09.00.
Great Britain’s Stephen Milne, Cameron Kurle, Thomas Dean and Calum Jarvis took the second spot at 7:11.91.
Italy’s Stefano Di Cola, Matteo Ciampi, Alessio Proieti Colonna and Mattia Zuin finished third at 7:12.46.
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