European Juniors: Vivien Jackl Sets CR To Retain 400IM Title, Double Relay Gold For Italy
Vivien Jackl set a Championship record en-route to retaining her 400IM title and Italy clinched two relay golds on day one of the European Junior Swimming Championships in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Jackl won the 400IM title at the 2023 edition in Belgrade before setting a European junior record of 4:34.96 at the Hungarian Championships in April.
The 15-year-old has also made her mark on the senior international stage claiming a silver medal behind Anastasia Gorbenko of Israel at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade with her Olympic debut to come in Paris later this month.
Competing in the first final of the six-day meet, Jackl was joint-fourth after the fly leg but moved into the lead on the backstroke.
l-r: Sarah Dumont, Vivien Jackl, Laura Cabanes Garzas: Photo courtesy: European Aquatics
It was a position she never relinquished as she came home in 4:39.28 for a new Championship standard, slicing 1.36 from Alba Vasquez Ruiz’s 4:40.64 mark from 2019.
Sarah Dumont came from fourth at 300m for silver in 4:42.44, a new Belgian senior record, with Spain’s Laura Cabanes Garzas third in 4:43.62.
It capped a demanding day for Jackl who also safely navigated the 1500m freestyle prelims in the morning where she qualified fourth for Wednesday evening’s final.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” she told European Aquatics. “It hurt a bit but I’m going to be very proud of myself on the podium for the second time in this event.
“I felt a bit tired before this race because in the morning I had to swim 1500m as well, so that wasn’t very good!
“It’s like a practice for the Olympics and in the future to see if I can swim these events in this order.”
Double Gold For Italy
The Italian 4×100 free quartets also retained their titles from Belgrade 2023.
The women edged a thrilling race by the narrowest of margins as they overhauled France on the final 50 to win by 0.01sec.
Chiara Sama (56.27), Sara Curtis (54.74), Cristiana Stevenato (55.12) and Caterina Santambrogio (54.99) combined to come home in 3:41.12 with France clocking 3:41.13 with Germany third in 3:41.60.
In the men’s race, Gabriele Valente went 50.28 to hand over to Carlos D’Ambrosio in seventh with the youngest member of Team Italia for Paris 2024 propelling them into the lead with a 48.48 split.
Italy 4x100m freestyle relay squad: Photo courtesy: European Aquatics
Mirko Chiaversoli (49.07) and Lorenzo Ballarati (49.21) brought them home in 3:17.04 ahead of France (3:18.83) and Great Britain (3:19.49).
In the evening’s semifinals, Lithuania’s Kristupas Trepcoka led the men’s 200 free in 1:48.59 with Minna Abraham heading the women’s event in 1:58.36.
Samuel Kostal of Slovakia led the men’s 200m butterfly in 1:59.26.
Great Britain’s Blythe Kinsman (28.31) and Mantas Kauspedas of Lithuania (25.06) headed the women’s and men’s 50m backstroke races with Spain’s Nayara Pineda Lopez (31.50) and Nusrat Allahverdi (27.59) leading the 50m breaststroke semis.
In the morning prelims, Amelie Blocksidge of Great Britain led the way into the women’s 1500m freestyle final in 16:24.71.
- Link to results
- Link to EuroAquaticsTV.com (subscription)