It was a busy night in Netanya, Israel at the 2015 European Short Course Championships for Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom.
The session started with the women’s 50 butterfly semi-final where the Swedish flyer, Sarah Sjostrom finished first in a 25.06. Italy’s Silvia Di Pietro touched second and Jeanette Ottesen was third.
Later in the session, Sjostrom took the gold in the finals with a time of 24.58. She was off the world record by just two tenths of a second. Ottesen took silver in 25.04 and Di Pietro earned bronze with a 25.26.
It was also another night of gold for Katinka Hosszu at the second finals session in Israel. She won the 100 backstroke in a time of 55.42 just slightly off her world record of 55.03. However, she was not the only one cutting it close to world records.
Next up was the men’s 200 freestyle final. Paul Biedermann touched out the two Belgians with a time of 1:42.68. Pieter Timmers was second in 1:42.85. Glenn Surgeloose and Russia’s Viacheslav Andrusenko tied for third place with 1:43.55.
Another almost-world record from Marco Koch from Germany in the 200 breaststroke final. He touched first in a time of 2:00.53, just five one hundredths off the world record time set by Daniel Gyurta. Tonight, Gyurta took silver with a time of 2:01.99.
Next, the women’s 100 freestyle semi-final ended with Ranomi Kromowidjojo securing the top spot with a 51.39. Sjoestrom was second (52.01), Popova was third in 52.21.
David Verraszto of Hungary earned a gold medal in the 400 IM tonight. He held off GBR’s Roberto Pavoni in a time of 4:02.43. Gal Nevo took bronze.
The women’s 100 backstroke final went Hosszu first, Alicja Tchorz second and Eyglo Osk Gustafsdottir third.
Radials Kawecki pulled off another win in the semi-final of the men’s 100 backstroke. He went 50.11, Donets followed with 50.67 and Christoph Walker-Hebborn of Great Britain took third in 50.74.
Minutes after her first event, Hosszu swam the 100 IM semifinal and snagged a top spot with a new championship record of 57.49. She touched out Great Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor by just one tenth of a second.
After the women’s 100 IM semi-final, Laszlo Cseh took gold in the men’s 100 butterfly final. He set a new championship record with a time of 49.33. Italy’s Matteo Rivolta was second in 49.70 and Russia’s Nikita Konovalov was third in 50.28.
Jazzman Carlin touched out Boglarka Kapas of Hungary in the women’s 800 freestyle with a time of 8:11.01. Kapas touched second with 8:11.43 and Sharon Rouwendaal took bronze with 8:15.84.
The last event of the evening session was the 4×50 mixed medley relay. Italy took gold, Russia silver and Belarus bronze. Italy set a new championship record with 1:38.33. The rest of the field included: (4) Netherlands, (5) Germany, (6) Finland, (7) Israel, (8) Czech Republic.
The top three countries with the most medals after day 2 are: Hungary, Germany and Russia.
