Samorin 2025: Damborg’s golden double and Tuncelli hat-trick highlight day 3 at European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships

Denmark’s Martine Damborg won two golds in less than an hour on day three of the European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in a record-breaking session which also saw Turkiye’s Kuzey Tuncelli earn his third consecutive 1500m freestyle title in masterly fashion.

Damborg, who had won women’s 50m backstroke silver on the previous night, earned the first of her titles in the women’s 50m freestyle after Croatia’s 2024 silver medallist Jana Pavalic, whom she followed home, was disqualified.

The Croatian pumped her fist after being initially credited with what would have been a personal best winning time of 24.87, but  was then ruled to have moved too early at the start and the title went to the 18-year-old Danish swimmer, who had clocked 25.00.

Neutral athlete Kira Manokhina and Britain’s Theodora Taylor, from lane 2, shared silver after clocking 25.12.

Damborg re-focused and re-appeared to defend her women’s 100m butterfly title, which she managed comfortably in 58.30, with silver going to Finland’s Aliisa Soini in 58.95 and Poland’s Flawia Kamzol earning bronze in 59.10.

“Yesterday was a tough night and yes, I got a silver medal, but I’m so proud to have done much better tonight,” Damborg told European Aquatics.

“I haven’t ever competed in the 50m freestyle at a European juniors before so I think it was quite fun as there was no pressure to go out and swim fast and the time made me very happy.

“The 100m butterfly obviously there was a bit of pressure after winning last time, so to do it this year again and a bit faster, makes me very happy.

“It’s unreal to have my team here and family watching and be able to stand on the podium twice, it’s a dream come true.”

As expected, Tuncelli – who set a world junior record of 14:41.89 in winning this title in Vilnius last year and lowered it to 14:41.22 in finishing fifth at the Paris 2024 Olympics – was a class apart in the 1500m.

Already tapering for next month’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, and suffering the after-effects of badly bruising his foot in a training accident, the 17-year-old was clearly pleased to have secured his hat-trick with a time of 14:45.05.

Germany’s Johannes Liebermann took silver in 14:53.15, with bronze going to Spain’s Cristobal Vargas Trujillo, who just held off the challenge of Romania’s Andrei-Theodor Proca, 15:11.34 to 15:11.77.

Now the 17-year-old Turkish phenomenon will turn his attention to the defence of his 800m freestyle title.

“Actually it’s a great feeling, coming from training I’m feeling so great about this title,” Tuncelli said.

“This means that my prospects for Singapore are looking better than I thought yesterday. It’s a great time without taper and with an injury so I hope I will be even better in Singapore.

“It’s so great to have this support from my team-mates and I feel so great with them here cheering for me, I couldn’t do it without them and I want to thank them so much.”

Italy rounded off the session to the exultation of their flag-waving supporters as they won the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay in a Championship and European junior record of 7:56.06, with individual 200m champion Bianca Nannucci clocking 1:59.65 on leg 2 and Alessandra Mao bringing the quartet home in a hugely impressive 1:57.53.

Lithuania took silver in 8:02.15, with bronze going to Great Britain – who had women’s 400m individual medley champion Amalie Smith on the last leg – in 8:04.12.  

Neutral athlete Mikhail Shcherbakov dominated the men’s 200m backstroke final from start to finish, winning in a personal best and Championship record of 1:59.04, bettering the mark of 1:59.17 held by Britain’s Tom Dean, the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist.

Romania’s defending champion Robert-Andrei Badea, had to settle for silver on this occasion as, after narrowing Shcherbakov’s lead to 0.12 at 150m he was unable to match his rival’s final 50, finishing in 2:00.59.

Bronze went to Iason Routoulas of Greece in 2:01.18.

The men’s 200m breaststroke semi-finals were full of drama as Turkey’s defending champion Doruk Yogurtcuoglu, second fastest in the heats behind Britain’s Filip Nowacki, pushed hard to win the first race in a personal best and Championship record of 2:10.63, bettering the mark of 2:10.69 set by Anton Chupkov.

But Nowacki, who had set a personal best of 2:10.74 earlier in he day, was – very soon – punching the water after  consigning the Turkish swimmer’s Championship mark to a minuscule lifetime as the digital clock stopped at an astonishing European junior record time of 2:09.11.

There was more than qualification going on here – and tomorrow’s final should be something to see…

“I’m quite speechless to be honest, I wasn’t expecting that time on the board,” Nowacki said. “I knew I had to go fast to make the final as the field is stacked this year.”

On the Championship record being beaten for the first time in 10 years just minutes earlier, he added: “I was quite composed in the call room which isn’ t really like me but then I hear the record had been broken which made my heart go a little bit – but clearly it was good.”

Ireland’s defending men’s 200m backstroke champion John Shortt, despite nursing fingers damaged by earlier collisions with the unforgiving lane markers, moved into tomorrow night’s final in 1:58.12, almost a second faster than his nearest rival.

Hungary’s Zsombor Racz followed the man from Limerick home in the second heat in 1:58.91, with Italy’s 2024 silver medallist Daniele del Signore on 1:59.04.

Britain’s Dean Fearn topped qualifiers into tomorrow’s men’s 100m butterfly on 52.66 from neutral athlete Evgenii Shilovskii in 52.93, with Italy’s Francesco Ceolin third fastest on 52.99. Hungary’s 16-year-old David Antal, already 100m butterfly champion, took the eighth and last place on 53.24.

Spain’s defending champion Estella Tonrath qualified fastest for tomorrow’s women’s 200m backstroke final in 2:10.68 from her team-mate Nahia Garrido Malvar, who clocked 2:12.46.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

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