Samorin 2025: Turkiye’s Tuncelli in golden pursuit on second day of European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships
Turkiye’s rising phenomenon Kuzey Tuncelli made a highly efficient start to his campaign here on day two of the European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships by qualifying fastest for tomorrow’s men’s 1500m freestyle final.
The 17-year-old -who is defending the 1500m and 800m titles in Samorin and seeking a third consecutive gold in the longer event – eased to a time of 15:02.50, finishing a full 15sec clear of his closest rival despite suffering the after-effects of a training injury which left his foot badly bruised.
“That was a great start and it’s beautiful place to race,” Tuncelli told European Aquatics. “I took it relatively cool, as it is more challenging in the sun but it’s okay and I hope it can go quicker tomorrow afternoon.
“My taper is for Singapore World Championships, but I hope it’s going to be great for this Championships too. I do have a little injury in my foot, but I’m going to try my best.
“When I was in training in my county, I did a turn and my feet were wrong, too close to the wall, and I got a little bit of an injury, but it’s not broken and it’s going to be okay.”
The next fastest 1500m qualifiers on another day of clear skies and brilliant sunshine at the outdoor pool within Slovakia’s Olympic Training Centre were Romania’s Andrei-Theodor Proca on 15:17.50 and Germany’s Johannes Liebmann on 15:18.16.
Tuncelli enjoyed a year of dizzying success in 2024, winning his junior 1500m gold in a world junior record of 14:41.89, lowering it to the current mark of 14:41.22 in finishing fifth at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
He also won the senior European title in Belgrade in 14:55.64 and concluded his year by taking 1500m bronze at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest, setting a world junior short course record of 14:20.64.
France qualified fastest for tonight’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay in 3:32.10, with Italy clocking 3:32.20 and Great Britain third fastest on 3:32.79.
Martine Damborg had a busy morning, beginning with an efficient start to the defence of her women’s 100m butterfly as she qualified for tonight’s semi-finals by winning the final heat in 1:00.01.
The 18-year-old Dane, who was also joint 50m butterfly champion with Croatia’s Jana Pavalic in Vilnius last year, was third fastest qualifier behind Poland’s Flawia Kamzol in 58.90 and Aliisa Soini of Finland on 59.74.
Half an hour later she qualified sixth fastest for the women’s 50m freestyle semi-finals in 25.63 in heats headed by Pavalic, silver medallist in 2024, who clocked 25.05 ahead of neutral athlete Kira Mnokhina on 25.35 and Albane Cachot of France on 25.48.
Britain’s bronze medallist from 2024, Skye Carter, moved through one place behind the Danish swimmer in 25.68.
Damborg has an even busier evening ahead of her as she has also reached the women’s 50m backstroke final…
Another defending champion, Robert-Andrei Badea of Romania, also made a winning start as he qualified fastest in the men’s 200m individual medley heats in 2:03.41 from Britain’s Daniel Ransom, who clocked 2:03.82, and neutral athlete Mikhail Bykov on 2:04.18.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
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