Russia amasses 23 titles – a record
Russia managed to better its best ever result at the junior Europeans by amassing 23 gold medals, one more than in last year – this is a record in the championship’s history. Their youngsters clinched 8 titles on the last day of the European Games’ swimming competitions.
It is interesting, though, that in the men’s field they couldn’t capture any gold in the freestyle events. Saturday saw Israel’s Ziv Kalontarov winning the dash while the 200m went to Britain’s Duncan Scott with his compatriot, Cameron Kurle coming second. It was the Scot’s second title as he won the 100m as well. The third gold eluding the Russians on the closing day went to Germany’s Maxine Wolters who won the 200m IM.
All other events enriched the ruling nation’s collection. Anton Chupkov in breaststroke and Daniil Pakhomov in fly produced the same feat: both added the 100m titles to their respective 200m wins. Nikolay Sokolov and Igor Balyberdin finished 1-2 in the 400m IM.
Among the women, Polina Egorova proved her versatility as she won the 100m back and the 50m fly in less than an hour (she won two titles in each stroke altogether), while Maria Astashkina completed her hat-trick in the breaststroke by winning the 100m.
The remaining two relay titles also landed in the Russians hands: only the Brits could clinch one in the championships (the men’s 4x100m free), the outcome of the other six was never in doubt. By being part of the winning side in the women’s 4x200m free, Arina Openysheva got her fifth title in relays, boosting her individual medal tally to 7 gold and a silver – thus she was the most successful swimmer of the meet.
The Russian team topped the medal table by 23 titles – in 2012 they had 12, in 2013 it jumped to 19, last year it stood at 22 –, they amassed 42 medals altogether, ahead of the British who earned as many medals as the number of the Russian titles (23 – 7-7-9). The Italians’ tally mirrors some kind of misfortune: beside a gold medal they had 9 silvers altogether.
European Games – Swimming – Medallists, Day 5
Men
50m free
1. Ziv Kalontarov (ISR)​ 22.16
2. Giovanni Izzo (ITA) ​22.51
3. Aleksei Brianskii (RUS)​ 22.69
200m free
1. Duncan Scott (GBR)​ ​1:48.55
2. Cameron Kurle (GBR)​ 1:48.92
3. Elisei Stepanov (RUS) ​​1:49.64
100m breast
1. Anton Chupkov (RUS)​ 1:00.65
2. Andrius Sidlauskas (LTU)​ 1:01.42
3. Charlie Attwood (GBR)​ 1:01.71
100m fly
1. Daniil Pakhomov (RUS)​52.72
2. Alberto Lozano (ESP)​​52.78
3. Daniil Antipov (RUS)​​53.36
400m IM
1. Nikolay Sokolov (RUS)​4:19.44
2. Igor Balyberdin (RUS)​4:20.80
3. Karol Zbutowicz (POL)​4:22.22
4x100m medley
1. Russia​​ 3:36.38
2. Great Britain ​​3:39.01
3. Poland​ 3:39.31
Women
100m back
1. Polina Egorova (RUS)​​ 1:01.19
2. Mariia Kameneva (RUS) ​1:01.23
3. Pauline Mathieu (FRA)​ 1:01.34
100m breast
1. Maria Astashkina (RUS)​ 1:07.71
2. Giulia Verona (ITA)​​ 1:08.61
3. Daria Chikunova (RUS) ​1:09.02
50m fly
1. Polina Egorova (RUS)​​ 26.82
2. Caroline Pilhatsch (AUT) ​27.18
3. Julie Jensen (DEN)​ 27.19
200m IM
1. Maxine Wolters (GER) ​2:13.37
2. Ilaria Cusinato (ITA)​ ​2:13.78
3. Abbie Wood (GBR)​​ 2:14.49
4x200m free
1. Russia​​ 8:03.45
2. Netherlands​ ​8:04.65
3. Great Britain​ ​8:04.84
Medal table – swimming
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Sum |
| Russia | 23 | 7 | 12 | 42 |
| Great Britain | 7 | 7 | 9 | 23 |
| Germany | 3 | 4 | 6 | 13 |
| France | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Austria | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Italy | 1 | 9 | 0 | 10 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 5 | 0 | 6 |
| Lithuania | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Ukraine | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Israel | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Spain | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Poland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Greece | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Hungary | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Belarus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Croatia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Serbia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
All athletes are also considered junior European Championships medallists in 2015.
