Sara Curtis, Lana Pudar And Vlad Stancu Progress Through Heats At European Juniors
Sara Curtis, Lana Pudar and Vlad Stancu all safely negotiated the second day of prelims at the European Juniors in Belgrade.
Curtis led off the Italian quartet that won 4×100 free gold on Tuesday evening before returning to the pool to post the fastest 50 free prelim of 25.32, a year after bronze at the 2022 European Juniors.
Britain’s Skye Carter – who won relay bronze behind Italy and Hungary – posted 25.69 with Lillian Slusna third through in 25.73.
Defending champion Nina Jazy of Germany posted the joint-fifth fastest time of 25.85.
Pudar claimed silver at last year’s European Juniors along with 50 and 200 fly gold before going on to win bronze at the Europeans in Rome behind Louise Hansson and Marie Wattel in a Bosnian record of 57.27.
Going in the final heat, the 17-year-old split 29.00/30.50 to touch in 59.50 with Martine Damborg posting the fastest prelim of 59.30 and last year’s bronze medallist Julia Ullman the third swimmer to go inside 1min in 59.81.
Stancu won the boys’ 1500 free at the 2022 European Juniors, setting a national record of 15:05.47 in his hometown pool as he took down Dragos Coman‘s Romanian standard that had stood since Athens 2004.
He led the prelims in 15:22.73 to book lane four for Thursday’s finals where he’ll be alongside Turkey’s Muhammed Yusuf Ozden who clocked 15:24.11.
Italy – who won both 4×100 free relays on Tuesday – head the field in the mixed event in 3:32.25 ahead of Hungary (3:32.93) and France (3:33.39).
Finn Wendland headed the boys’ 200IM prelims into Wednesday’s semis in 2:02.36.