France’s Fantine Lesaffre captured the first gold in swimming at the European Championships with a triumphant effort in the women’s 400 IM. Lasaffre took command of the race on the breaststroke leg and ended up winning by almost a second. She touched in 4:34.17, beating out Ilaria Cusinato’s 4:34.65 from June as the fastest time in the world this year.
Italy’s Cusinato took the silver medal with her time of 4:35.05, and Great Britain’s Hannah Miley held off teammate Aimee Willmott for third, 4:35.34 to 4:35.77. Miley was the European champion in the event back in 2010.
The medalists benefited from the absence of Katinka Hosszu, the Hungarian who won Olympic gold in the 400 IM in 2016 as well as the past three World titles in the event. Hosszu is present at the meet but did not swim the 400 IM.
Zsuzsanna Jakobos did compete in the event for Hungary, and she took fifth in 4:38.48. Also competing in the final were Catalina Corro Lorente (4:38.83), Italy’s Carlotte Toni (4:40.18) and Serbia’s Anja Crevar (4:41.40).
