Samorin 2025: Double gold medallists Juska and Nowacki tee up further success on day five of the EA Junior Swimming Championships
Samorin 2025: Double gold medallists Juska and Nowacki tee up further success on day five of the EA Junior Swimming Championships
Double gold medallist of the night before, Tajus Juska, got straight back to business in this morning’s session on day five at the European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships.
The 16-year-old Lithuanian, who secured the men’s 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle titles in the space of half an hour, opened his defence of the men’s 100m freestyle title by qualifying fifth fastest for tonight’s semi-finals in 49.96.
Neutral athlete Mikhail Shcherbakov topped the 16 qualifiers in 49.55, with Norway’s Sander Sorensen next fastest on 49.84 and Turkey’s Demir Ozdemir on 49.86.
In temperatures which had fallen from mid-30s to mid-20s, Juska returned to the pool for the men’s 50m butterfly, qualifying 12th fastest in 24.49.
Britain’s Dean Fearn, who finished one place behind Juskas in the 100m butterfly and then helped Great Britain retain the mixed 4x200m medley title, topped qualifying on 23.71.
Fearn’s team-mate Filip Nowacki also returned from an evening session of double gold – having lowered his European junior record to 2:08.32 in the men’s 200m breaststroke and then competed in the medley relay – and he topped qualifying in the men’s 100m breaststroke in 1:00.93.
Lithuania’s women’s 50m breaststroke champion Smilte Plynykaite topped 100m breaststroke qualifying in 1:07.91, her nearest rival being Spain’s Jimena Ruiz Sanchez on 1:09.07.
Spain’s Estella Tonrath, who retained her women’s 200m backstroke title in the previous session, was second fastest qualifier in the 100m backstroke in 1;01.60, one place behind team-mate Sara Costa de Vicente on 1:01.12 and one above Britain’s 50m backstroke gold medallist Blythe Kinsman on 1:01.64.
Ireland’s John Shortt, bronze medallist in the men’s 200m backstroke, was second fastest into the 100m backstroke semi-finals on 55.44 behind neutral athlete Georgii Iakovlev on 54.52.
Denmark’s double gold medallist in the women’s swimming, Martine Damborg, set out in pursuit of another podium visit as she qualified second fastest in the 50m butterfly – in which she was joint champion last year – with a time of 26.63.
Flawia Kamsol of Poland was fastest on 26.44. Croatia’s Jana Pavalic, who shared this title with Damborg in 2024 and was disqualified for a start irregularity after touching ahead of her Danish rival in the 50m freestyle, was seventh fastest in 27.00.
Britain’s women’s 400m individual medley winner, 15-year-old Amalie Smith, topped qualifying in the 200m medley on 2:15.57 ahead of team-mate Phoebe Cooper on 2:16.18 and Germany’s Noelie Benkler on 2:16.92.
Italy topped qualifying for the men’s 4x200m freestyle final in 7:22.00 ahead of France on 7:22.51 and Spain on 7:22.67.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
The post Samorin 2025: Double gold medallists Juska and Nowacki tee up further success on day five of the EA Junior Swimming Championships first appeared on European Aquatics®.