Report of the 14th Junior European Championships in Poland
Tuesday 9th July
At 19:30 all the delegations participated in the opening ceremony of the 14th Junior European Championships at the swimming Arena of Szczecin.
The mayor of the city greeted every competitor. Before the speech Robert Nowicz, the president of the Polish Federation and Ilias Xiarchos president of the Sports Committee, as a representative of the CMAS president, have opened the championships.
Day 1-2 (10-11th July)
The championship has started two days ago, and it’s raining records. There are already 7 junior world records, sometimes there are 2 or 3 competitors below the records simultaneously.
R. GINIYATULIN (RUS), 100SF B and 50SF B (in heat and in finale) ;
G. KOSINA (HUN) 100BF B ;
K. BELOMESTNOVA (EST) 50SF G ;
A. SKURLATOVA (RUS) 50SF G in Finale ;
A ANTONIAK 400SF G.
In relay the female team of Russia set a new record too.
In 10BF all the 3 competitors on the podium swam faster than the previous world record. And the situation was the same with the gold and silver medalists of 400 SF G.
Another positive sign is that 3 competitors (Giniyatulin, Skurlatova and Antoniak) were born in 1997, so they have another year in junior category.
Concerning the table of medals, on the first two days 10 country's competitors have won medals.
Day 3 (12th July)
During the last day, 3 world junior records were broken, one of them during the slow heats in the morning on 200SF G by G. KOSINA (HUN). A second for him in afternoon on the same distance but in BF. The last was set on 800SF G by Julia GILIAZOVA (RUS).
By the end there were 11 new world juniors’ records on 9 distances during these three days of competition.
Day 4-5 (13-14 th July)
For these two days in Long distance, Teams changed place and went to Stargard, 30 Km from SCZCECIN. The weather was windy during all events but by chance, no rain.
The two relays were dominated by Ukraine and second place for Russia and third place for Greece and Italy.
In the 6kms both races ended with Russian win. Dmitriy ZHURMAN at the boys, and Evgenia KOZYREVA at the girls.
During long-distance races, although there weren't many participants, we have seen great races with beautiful fighting between participants allowing viewers to enjoy a good show. The medal ceremonies were held in an amphitheater on the lake with about 500 to 600 spectators.
At the end, I think that we assisted at a beautiful championship with a very high level performance in swimming and long-distance. In opinion of some technicians, I would recall particularly the name of GINIYATULIN for these European Junior Championships 2013.
