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”
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GB suffered a 14.9%, or £4m, funding cut after missing their London 2012 medal target of five to seven medals.
As a result Furniss has overseen a drastic cut in the number of funded swimmers and has insisted on more regular competition.
“We’re taking some out of their comfort zone but we’ll benefit,” he said.
“It’s not a choice for the athletes, if they are on the programme we are telling them they have to do this, so we’re forcing a bit of change.”
A Manchester swimmer is to be immortalised in the name of the city’s newest road.
Sunny Lowry – the first woman to swim the channel – will be celebrated as part of major regeneration work taking place around Eastlands.
The Longsight -born athlete was chosen after a Dragons Den-style clash between five schools.
Teams from each tried to persuade a panel – featuring current and former Manchester City players, among others – to pick their chosen historical figure for the accolade.
Also put forward were international water polo player Billy Dean, Bradford Labour politician John Edward Sutton, children’s writer Frances Hodgson Burnett – author of The Secret Garden – and the late Monkees star Davy Jones.
See len.eu, the European Swimming League (LEN) has switched from Omega and the online live timing solution that we have gotten used to on omegatiming.com, to their own ‘LEN Timing System’, apparently partnered with Alge Timing. The live timing for the Herning 2013 European Short Course Championships can be found here.
Timelapse of the construction on the Herning 2013 European Short Course Championships venue.
