On a night when French icon Leon Marchand raised home hopes sky high by qualifying fastest into tomorrow night’s men’s 200m butterfly final, Romania’s 21-year-old David Popovici secured his third consecutive European 100m/200m freestyle double as he dominated the longer distance final in which he holds Olympic and world titles.
Popovici was not the only athlete on the night completing a European double as Italy’s Simona Quadarella, already women’s 800m freestyle champion, added the women’s 1500m title in a Championship record of 15:46.22 to secure her tenth individual European gold.
Germany’s Isabel Gose and Maya Werner took respective silver and bronze in 15:49.31 and 15:52.50.
Belgium’s 21-year-old Roos Vanotterdijk retained the women’s 100m butterfly title she won two years ago in Belgrade.
Gold in the women’s 200m breaststroke final went to NAB’s world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova in a Championship record of 2:19.32, with Great Britain’s women’s 100m breaststroke champion Angharad Evans taking silver.
Miroslav Knedla earned Czechia’s second gold at these Championships as he won the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.11 from NAB athletes Kliment Kolesnikov and Pavel Samusenko on 24.12 and 24.24 respectively. For all the urging of the home crowd, France’s world 100m backstroke bronze medallist was last in 24.65.
Marrit Steenbergen’s medal collection here now comprises two golds and three silvers – her super-swift final leg split of 50.74 was not quite enough to catch the NAB’s anchor leg swimmer Kira Manokhina, who clocked 53.02 to bring her team gold in a Championship record of 3:19.95.
The Dutch took second place in 3:20.09, with bronze going to Italy in 3:20.80, for whom Sara Curtis swam the third leg, adding a second bronze to a medal collection that already comprised bronze, silver and gold.
Marchand, who is competing here nursing a hip adductor injury, won his first European medal in helping France finish second in the men’s 4x200m freestyle, But the 24-year-old four-times Paris 2024 champion now appears to have realistic prospects of making his first individual European medal a golden one.
Having qualified fourth fastest into tonight’s men’s 200m butterfly semi-finals in 1:55.90, took his performance to another level as he clocked 1:53.95, providing the adoring crowd who had chanted his name with a clear margin of victory over Hungary’s Richard Marton in 1:54.47, from Hungary’s 200m backstroke champion Hubert Kos on 1:55.13.
Popovici displayed his almost leisurely power in the men’s 200m freestyle, which he led from start to finish, clocking 1:44.15, although he came under some late pressure from lane one in the form of Lithuania’s Tomas Navikonas, who finished fast to take silver in 1:44.55.
Great Britain’s James Guy earned bronze in 1:44.87, one place ahead of Austria’s 18-year-old Christian Giefing on 1:45.14.
“I’m very happy to be, I think, the first swimmer in history to win the European 100/200m free three times so I’m really happy for that,” Popovici told European Aquatics. “Maybe I wish I’d gone a little faster, but I’m happy.
“It’s a thing I’ve had since I was a little kid, always trying to strive for better and more. I’ve swum enough for glory and objectives so now I just swim for the sake of excellence.
“The world records in the 100m and 200m I think I will get to sooner or later, but until then celebrate and then get back to work even stronger and smarter.”
After equalling the women’s 100m butterfly Championship record of 55.89 in her semi-final Vanotterdijk was favourite for gold and she led throughout, never looking likely to do anything other than win.
Silver went to Germany’s 2024 world champion Angelina Kohler in 56.39, with NAB’s Daria Klepikova taking bronze in 56.76.
“Maybe the first reaction was ‘I know I can go faster’ but I’ve had a bit of stomach pain the day before so it wasn’t ideal,” Vanotterdijk said. “But I made the best of it and I’m still really happy with what I did and I’m a European champion so I can be very happy with this.
“The last two seasons have given me a lot of confidence and maybe people look at me but I don’t like think about it as I’m still doing it for myself and giving my best for the performance. I’m just very happy I can keep doing this.”
Knedla told European Aquatics: “It was so unexpected I really didn’t think I’d be able to win! I came here with maybe expectations to make the final, maybe win a medal, but that was probably the goal and now here I am.
“History repeats, in Lublin, last December I was second by one, one hundredth and now it went in my favour. I’m so proud to have won against my idol, Kliment (Kolesnikov), he’s incredible and five years back I was asking ‘how does he swim like that’ and now I’m so happy to be here and this is a reward for working so hard everyday.”
Evans made a bold start in the women’s 200m breaststroke final, reaching the halfway point in the lead and 0.7 inside world record pace. She retained that position until the final 50 metres, where Chikunova turned on the power to move clear, eventually eclipsing the mark of 2:19.84 set by Denmark’s Rikke Pedersen in 2014.
The Briton, who won two Commonwealth titles for Scotland last month, nevertheless finished strongly to place second in 2:21.21, with bronze going to Ireland’s 100m breaststroke silver medallist Mona McSharry in 2:22.43.
“It means the whole world,” Chikunova said. “I’m just so happy with the competition record as I saw this competition record set by Pedersen (Rikke Moller Pedersen) and that was inspiration for me and this is why the gold medal is the best thing for me in many years.
“Why am I crying? Because this was a really hard race mentally because I saw how Evans and I were going together and the last 50m was so hard and I had to push much stronger, but I could do this and did this and I’m so happy.”
.Home fans in the full house crowd got into full voice supporting women’s 50m backstroke silver medallist Mary-Ambre Moluh and Pauline Mahieu, women’s 200m backstroke bronze medallist, as they progressed as the fastest two into tomorrow’s women’s 200m backstroke final with respective times of 58.21 and 58.93.
With Britain’s world record holder Adam Ramsay-Peaty out of the picture after failing to make it through the men’s 50m breaststroke heats, the two front runners in the morning continued in similar vein.
Italy’s world champion Simone Cerasuolo and Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Nicolo Martinenghi were fastest through to tomorrow’s final in 26.23 and 26.62 respectively, with Dutch swimmer Koen de Groot third fastest in 26.71.
Sweden’s 32-year-old Sarah Sjostrom, the Olympic 50m and 100m freestyle champion who has already won gold in the 50m butterfly here, moved into tomorrow’s 50m freestyle final fastest in 23.83.
Dutch swimmer Milou van Wijk was second fastest on 24.07 and Katarzyna Wasick of Poland on 24.08, with Italy’s 19-year-old world record breaker and 50m backstroke champion Sara Curtis fourth fastest on 24.13 ahead of women’s 100m freestyle champion Marrit Steenbergen of The Netherlands.
Don’t blink.
Britain’s Abbie Wood was fastest qualifier to tomorrow’s women’s 200m individual medley in 2:09.99, with Spain’s Alba Vazquez next on 2:10.87 and Wood’s 16-year-old team-mate Amalie Smith, the women’s 400m IM silver medallist, on 2:11.12 ahead of Israel’s defending champion Anastasia Gorbenko on 2:11.14.
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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics