Mie Ø. Nielsen saved the day for Denmark, well and truly. Yuliya Efimova broke the women’s 200 meter breaststroke world record, Nielsen the women’s 100 backstroke European record, Russia an (obligatory?) world record in the mixed 4×50 medley, and Sarah Sjöström a championships record in the 50 fly.
As predicted back in November and repeated now for instance on DR.dk, tonight is supposed to be ‘the Great Danish Night’, with Jeanette Ottesen well seated in the 100 freestyle final, Mie Ø. Nielsen in the 100 backstroke final, Rikke Møller Pedersen in the 200 breaststroke final and Lotte Friis in the 800 freestyle final. But the competition is tough, and the Danish media is already a bit harsh, after the not-so-impressive performance on day 1. Politiken went as fas as to say that the 1:37.04 women’s 4×50 freestyle world record that the Danish ladies set yesterday was ‘silly nonsense’, since the Dutch’ European record is 1:33.25, and the Swedish Nordic record 1:35.46. Anyways, looking forward to a good night of racing, in a sold-out Box.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu leads the table, the women’s 200 IM and 50 breaststroke finals the big events yesterday. Sarah Sjöström the sole Scandinavian in the top-8, and Russia’s Vladimir Morozov the only male.
No big surprises this morning, and no championships or world records either. The home crowd definitely looking forward to the duel between Yuliya Efimova and Rikke Møller Pedersen in the women’s 200 breaststroke, the women’s 100 backstroke where youngster Mie Ø. Nielsen is the favorite, and to the 100 freestyle where Jeanette Ottesen will have to fight for a medal.
Russia rules with 4 gold medals, 1 world record and 1 championships record after the first day of competition, Efimova having clocked a couple of championships records en route to the final. Spain’s Mireia Belmonte set a new European record of 2:01.52 in the 200 fly, and Denmark won the women’s 4×50 freestyle in a new world record time of 1:37.04.
Press release from LEN
After missing the 50m free World Record established by his compatriot Amaury Leveaux (44.94) by just 0.08 sec at the French nationals in Dijon, Florent Manaudou had to cancel his participation at the 17th European Short Course Swimming Championships due to a shoulder injury. The younger brother of the now retired 400m freestyle Athens Olympic gold medallist Laure Manaudou, Florent originally entered the 50m and 100m freestyle, the 50m fly, 50m breast and 100m IM races in Herning. In the absence of Florent Manaudou few of the most awaited clashes cannot take place. The Frenchman would have staged magnificent duels against Russia’s Vladimir Morozov as both of them posted excellent results recently, only 0.03 sec separated them in the world ranks in the 50m free and only 0.01sec in the 100m
IM.
Image courtesy of Jean-Claude MOUTON, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The LEN 2013 European Short Course Championships are underway, the ‘LEN Timing System’ still a bit dodgy but improving during the first batch of preliminary heats. Yuliya Efimova set a new championships record of 29.47 in the women’s 50 breaststroke, and the world records were broken in both the men’s 4×50 medley and women’s 4×50 freestyle.
“The official song for the LEN European Short Course Championships 2013 – in the City of Herning – Denmark.
Now translated into english to give our listeners outside Denmark a chance to understand the words and sing-a-long
Have fun”
