Italian teenager Gregorio Paltrinieri smashed the European 1,500m freestyle record, while Hungarian Laszlo Cseh confirmed his place as the king of European medley at the European Championships in Berlin on Wednesday.
Paltrinieri was in a realm of his own as he touched in 14 minutes, 39.93 seconds to slice almost 3 seconds off Yuri Prilukov’s 2008 mark.
Cseh, a five-time Olympic minor medalist, including three silvers at the 2008 Games, secured his fifth consecutive 200m individual medley title.
Photo: AFP
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostroem won her third gold of the European Championships with victory in the 100m freestyle.
Velimir Stjepanovic won his second title of the championships when he added the 200m freestyle title to 400m gold, while Rikke Moeller Pedersen won a 100m breaststroke notable for the absence of Olympic gold and bronze medalists Ruta Meilutyte and Yuliya Efimova.
Paltirinieri got the session off to a flying start. The 19-year-old’s only challenger was the clock and his time cut 3.28 seconds from Prilukov’s record, set in the time of performance-enhancing suits.
Photo: AFP
Pal Joensen of the Faroe Islands was second, 10.66 seconds adrift, with Paltrinieri’s fellow Italian Gabriele Detti in third.
Paltrinieri said swimming for so long on his own had been a challenge.
“I am very happy to have won this race. It was difficult to swim alone, but I decided before to avoid some competitions to put my full concentration on this. I expected and hoped to get the record since I was very young. The time is a good time,” he said.
He is the first European to have dipped under the 14:40 mark and although he is still almost 9 seconds off Sun Yang’s world record, the Italian does not believe it is out of his reach.
“It feels very close to Sun Yang: I have to reach 14:31.This race was preparation on the road to Rio, where I want to beat him,” Paltrinieri said.
Cseh won his first 200m title in 2006 in Budapest, a year after a World Championship silver in Montreal, and the 28-year-old has been without parallel in Europe ever since.
However, Wednesday’s final was a tight tussle as he had to come from behind, with Germany’s Markus Diebler ahead at the final turn.
Cseh called on all his experience to claw his way to victory by 0.07 seconds from Philip Heintz of Germany in 1:58.17, with Great Britain’s Rob Pavoni third.
Stjepanovic claimed the 200m freestyle title by just 0.02 seconds from world-record holder Paul Biedermann in 1:45.78. Olympic and world champion Yannick Agnel, less than convincing in Berlin, finished third.
Sjostroem added the 100m freestyle title to the golds she won in the 50m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay with Sweden.
The 21-year-old set a new championship record of 52.67 seconds en route to victory, the fastest time in the world this year.
Pedersen won the 100m breaststroke in 1:06.23 — a championship record, but Olympic gold and bronze medalists Meilutyte and Efimova were conspicuous by their absences.
World-record holder Meilutyte is at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing — although she will fly to Berlin for the 50m heats tomorrow — while Efimova is serving a 16-month doping ban.
Katinka Hosszu set a championhip record of 2:08.41 in the 200m individual medley semi-finals, Great Britain’s Ross Murdoch is to head the 200m breaststroke and Viktor Bromer of Denmark is to lead the way into the 200m butterfly final.
Mie Nielsen is to lead the way in the 100m backstroke, with Vladimir Morozov to head the 50m backstroke semi-finals.
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