Sara Curtis claimed her fifth gold medal with a narrow victory in the 100m freestyle as she held off the challenge of Minna Abraham on the penultimate day of the European Junior Swimming Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Curtis added gold to her titles in the 50 free and back as well as the women’s and mixed 4x100m freestyle relays.
The Italian had a superb start and her powerful, straight-arm stroke saw her turn in 25.79 but in the final 25m, Minna Abraham of Hungary ate into the deficit with every stroke and moved on to Curtis’ shoulder.
Curtis remained composed and got the touch by 0.06 in 54.22 to Abraham’s 54.28 with Grace Davison of Ireland taking bronze in 55.11.
Tuncelli Dominant In Turkish 1-2; Blocksidge Completes Double
Tuncelli demolished the 1500 WJR in 14:41.89 a couple of days ago and he was 0.30secs inside Lorenzo Galossi’s 800 standard of 7:43.37 at the 300m mark.
Kuzey Tuncelli: Photo courtesy: European Aquatics
While the prospect steadily slipped away, it was still an authoritative performance by the 16-year-old who came home in 7:48.01, a PB and a Turkish record, lowering his own mark of 7:48.53 from the World Championships in Doha in February.
Tuncelli enjoyed a winning margin of 8.17secs over Muhammad Yusuf Ozden who clocked 7:56.18 for a Turkish 1-2 while Johannes Liebmann of Germany added 800 bronze to his 1500 silver in 7:58.39.
Amelie Blocksidge also completed the distance double as she responded to the challenge of Vivien Jackl to come home in a PB of 8:30.05.
The Hungarian was second in 8:32.33 with Emma Giannelli coming from fifth at the final turn to come through for bronze in 8:33.83.
CRs For Del Rigo Torres & Italy Men’s 4×2
Italy dominated the men’s 4x200m freestyle throughout following a 1:47.26 lead-off from Paris-bound Alessandro Ragaini.
Filippo Bertoni (1:49.36) and Gabriele Valente (1:49.05) handed over to Carlos D’Ambrosio who split 1:46.48 on the anchor leg as the youngest member of Team Italia at the Olympics steered the quartet into the wall in 7:12,15.
They sliced 3.31secs from the previous standard of 7:15.46. set by Hungary at the 2017 championships in Netanya, Israel.
Germany and Türkiye battled it out for the minor medals with the former getting the touch in 7:19.85 to 7:19.99.
Sarah Dumont won the 200 fly in 2:09.64 to lower her national record of 2:09.92 set at the Canet stop of the Mare Nostrum tour in May.
Eneli Jefimova set an Estonian record of 1:06.08 in the 100m breaststroke semifinals to take 0.10secs from her standard of 1:06.18 set at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka with the European champion on the brink of making her first voyage to 1:05.
Teo del Rigo Torres of Spain flew to a 50m butterfly Championship record of 23.41 in the prelims before qualifying swiftest in the evening.