Olympic Finalist Kuzey Tuncelli Claims Hat-Trick Of 1500 Free Titles At European Juniors
Olympic finalist Kuzey Tuncelli earned his third consecutive 1500m freestyle title with a 14:45.05 victory at the European Junior Championships in Samorin.
The Turkiye swimmer set a world junior record of 14:41.89 in winning this title in Vilnius last year and lowered it to 14:41.22 in finishing fifth at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Kuzey Tuncelli: Photo Courtesy: European Aquatics
With his focus having been on his preparations for the World Championships in Singapore, and suffering the after-effects of badly bruising his foot in a training accident, the 17-year-old was in clear water as he secured his hat-trick ahead of Germany’s Johannes Liebermann who took silver in 14:53.15, with bronze going to Spain’s Cristobal Vargas Trujillo, who just held off the challenge of Romania’s Andrei-Theodor Proca, 15:11.34 to 15:11.77.
Now Tuncelli will turn his attention to the defence of his 800m freestyle title.
“Actually it’s a great feeling, coming from training I’m feeling so great about this title,” he told European Aquatics. “This means that my prospects for Singapore are looking better than I thought yesterday. It’s a great time without taper and with an injury so I hope I will be even better in Singapore. It’s so great to have this support from my team-mates and I feel so great with them here cheering for me, I couldn’t do it without them and I want to thank them so much.”
Double Gold For Damborg As Records Tumble
Denmark’s Martine Damborg won two golds in less than an hour, Damborg, who won women’s 50m backstroke silver on day two, earned the first of her titles in the 50m freestyle after Croatia’s 2024 silver medallist Jana Pavalic, whom she followed home, was disqualified.
The Croatian was credited with what would have been a personal best winning time of 24.87, but was then ruled to have moved too early at the start and the title went to the 18-year-old Danish swimmer, who had clocked 25.00. Neutral athlete Kira Manokhina and Britain’s Theodora Taylor, from lane 2, shared silver after clocking 25.12.
Damborg re-focused and re-appeared to defend her women’s 100m butterfly title, which she managed comfortably in 58.30, with silver going to Finland’s Aliisa Soini in 58.95 and Poland’s Flawia Kamzol earning bronze in 59.10.
Martine Damborg: Photo Courtesy: Istvan Derencsenyi/European Aquatics
Neutral athlete Mikhail Shcherbakov dominated the men’s 200m backstroke final, winning in a personal best and Championship record of 1:59.04, bettering the mark of 1:59.17 held by three-time Olympic champion Tom Dean. Romania’s defending champion Robert-Andrei Badea, had to settle for silver on this occasion as, after narrowing Shcherbakov’s lead to 0.12 at 150m he was unable to match his rival’s final 50, finishing in 2:00.59. Bronze went to Iason Routoulas of Greece in 2:01.18.
The men’s 200 breast semis featured two Championship records in as many races. Turkiye’s defending champion Doruk Yogurtcuoglu, won the first race in a personal best and Championship record of 2:10.63, bettering the mark of 2:10.69 set by Anton Chupkov, who went on to win Olympic bronze and world gold.
Filip Nowacki had set a personal best of 2:10.74 in prelims buhe dipped inside the 2:10 barrier in the second semi in a time of 2:09.11. He moved to eighth all-time British performer and said: “I’m quite speechless to be honest, I wasn’t expecting that time on the board. I knew I had to go fast to make the final as the field is stacked this year.”
Italy won the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay in a Championship and European junior record of 7:56.06 with Alessandra Mao bringing the quartet home in 1:57.53. Lithuania took silver in 8:02.15, with bronze going to Great Britain – who had women’s 400m individual medley champion Amalie Smith on the last leg – in 8:04.12.
