Katinka Hosszu cracked 2:00 in the women’s 200-meter back to threaten her world record at the 2015 European Short Course Championships.
Hosszu keeps on going as she swam one of the fastest 200 backstroke ever, falling short of the world record in 1:59.95. Shortly behind her came Daria Ustinova of Russia (2:03.43) and Egylo Osk Gustaffsdottir from Iceland (2:03.96).
Day 3 prelims started off with the women’s 100 breaststroke. Both Jenna Laukkanen (1:05.55) and Lecluyse (1:05.68) finished in top position just like they did in the 50 and Moniek Nijhuis qualified second in 1:05.56.
Evgeny Sedov showed off in the men’s 50 freestyle with a time of 21.06, which qualifies him with the 1st time for tonight semi-finals. As it has been in place for many years, only TWO swimmers per nation may advance to the semi-finals, therefore, countries that qualify 2 or more see their swimmers not advancing further in the competition.
That was the case for Belgian swimmer Jasper Aerents who swam the 3rd time for Belgium in 21.75 behind his teammates François Heersbrandt (21.67) and Pieter Timmers (21.69). Heersbrandt has been having some knee-ache and decided to scratch the semis to let his teammate swim but it wasn’t approved by LEN. So, Aerents will not take part of the semis in the 50 freestyle.
Giedrius Titenis qualified in the men’s 100 breaststroke in 57.08, which also allows him to break Lithuania’s national record. Peaty (57.03), Gyurta (58.40), Koch (57.39) and Chupkov (58.61) also advanced to semi-finals.
Despite appearing on the heat sheet, Katinka Hosszu did not swim the 200m butterfly allowing Franziska Hentke to qualify 1st in a time of 2:05.07. Lara Grangeon qualified 2nd in 2:05.45.
Without too much surprise Germany’s Phillip Heintz (1:53.64) and Laszlo Cseh (1:54.37) qualified as top finishers in the men’s 200m individual medley.
Russia, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Israel, Finland and Austria will swim the final of the women’s 4×50 freestyle. Russia took the lead this morning but Netherlands did not have its best swimmers so it promises to be a good and fair fight tonight when all teams are put at their best.
