The start lists have been released for the first day of the pool programme at the European Championships in Paris.
The event gets underway with the men’s 400IM which was set to feature Olympic champion Leon Marchand as he kickstarted his quest for a maiden European title.
However, injury has forced his withdrawal from the IM events with Marchand restricting his programme to the 200m butterfly and 400 free plus relay events.
Sara Curtis: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia
In his place, Neutral Athlete Ilia Borodin is the fastest seed in 4:09.16 and goes in the last of three prelims which feature a total of 26 men.
The first women’s event is the 100m freestyle in which Marrit Steenbergen set a world record of 51.68 at the Sette Colli meet in Rome in June. The Netherlands swimmer won the title at Roma 2022 – one of four crowns she lifted in the Eternal City – and she’s in lane four in the sixth and final prelim.
Sara Curtis, who lowered the Italian record to 52.69 during the WR race in Rome, is second seed and goes in the penultimate heat, sandwiched between Florine Gaspard and Beryl Gastaldello.
The men’s 50 fly appears set to be a proper ding-dong battle. Neutral Athlete Egor Kornev goes in the sixth of eight heats, the Russian having set a national record of 22.59 in June and stands joint-top of the rankings. He’ll be flanked by four-time Olympic medallist Kristof Milak on one side and 2024 world champion Diogo Ribeiro on the other.
Sean Niewold set a national record of 22.69 at last month’s Dutch trials and he goes alongside world silver medallist Noè Ponti in the penultimate heat.
Maxime Grousset also had an injury scare when he fractured his foot in June but the Frenchman’s made it to the start line and will be flanked by Oleg Kostin and Thomas Ceccon.
Neutral Athlete Anastasiya Shkurdai is the only woman with an entry time inside 2:08 in the 200 back. She goes in the final of three prelims which features a field of 29 women.
Adam Peaty: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Other prelims include the men’s 100m breaststroke featuring the likes of Adam Ramsay-Peaty, Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi and Simone Cerasuolo, who won the world 50 title last year in Singapore.
Paris 2026 represents Ramsay-Peaty’s first appearance at a long-course Europeans since Budapest in May 2021. The Briton clinched the quadruple-quadruple in the Hungarian capital after winning four golds at the fourth straight European meet making it 16 golds from 16 races.
Things have changed for the three-time Olympic champion, however, in the ensuing years and he arrives in Paris on the back of two bronze medals and a relay silver at last month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Simona Quadarella and Isabel Gose go in the women’s 800 free prelims with the composition of Monday night’s men’s and women’s respective 4×200 free finals to be decided in the morning.
