While there were no new world records tonight at the 2015 European Short Course Championships, there was still plenty of fast swimming. The Italians proved especially strong with wins in the men’s 100 freestyle semi-final, the women’s 200 freestyle final and the 4×50 mixed freestyle relay.
One of several Italian’s who won tonight was Marco Orsi in the men’s 100 freestyle semi-final. He went 46.42 to touch out Philipp Wolf (46.80) The breakout swimmer from prelims, Mindaugas Sadauskas, ended up 7th (47.50) but will have another chance at the event tomorrow night.
The session started with the women’s 50 backstroke where Santa Jovanovic touched out Katinka Hosszu in semi-finals. However the Hungarian ultimately won in the finals in a time of 26.13. Jovanovic finished second in 26.27
After Nikita Konovalov won the semi-finals of the men’s 50 butterfly (22.54), Andriy Govorov won the event in finals with a slightly faster time of 22.36. Konovalov ended up fourth in 22.77 at night.
Finnish breaststroker, Jenna Laukkanen, crushed the rest of the field tonight in the 100 breast final. She finished in a time of 1:04.56, breaking the Finnish National Record in the event.
Hosszu snagged another win and another championship record in the 200 IM final tonight in 2:02.53. With that time she was less than one second off her world record time of 2:01.86.
In the men’s 100 IM final Sergei Fesikov took gold in 52.19. However, Liam Tancock added a bit of time from his morning swim going 53.23, landing him the fourth spot heading into finals.
An Italian stole another top spot in the women’s 200 freestyle relay. Frederica Pellegrini got down to a 1:51.89 to win, a huge drop from her qualifying time of 1:54.59
The British breaststroke phenom, Adam Peaty took second place to Marco Koch in the 100 breaststroke final. Koch posted a 56.78 and Peaty went 56.96.
Tomorrow will be a battle for gold between the ladies of the 100 butterfly. Sarah Sjoestroem leads the way heading into finals with the only time under 56 seconds (55.65). Alexandra Wenk is second right now with 56.48 and Jeanette Ottesen is close in third with 56.6.
The night ended with another victory for the Italians in the 4×50 mixed freestyle relay in a time of 1:29.26. They set a new championship record with that time. Russia was barely behind going a time of 1:29.58.
Here is the medal table after 27 events: Medals
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