Otopeni 2025: Shortt and D’Ambrosio complete world junior doubles as Turkiye takes two golds on final day

Ireland’s John Shortt and Italy’s Carlos D’Ambrosio earned second world junior titles on a final day of competition that saw Turkiye secure two golds through Kuzey Tuncelli and Nusrat Allahverdi.

Turkiye’s late efforts saw them rise to seventh place in a final medals table headed by the United States, with Great Britain finishing top European nation in fifth place – one above Italy..

Shortt, already champion in the 100m backstroke, added 200m gold as he finished 01.80 ahead of his nearest rival, Italy’s Daniele Del Signore, in clocking 1:56.19.

The 17-year-old Irishman, disappointed but dignified after taking bronze while defending his European junior 200m backstroke title in Samorin last month, responded immediately to win the European 100m backstroke final, and he has maintained that positivity in Otopeni, where he has also earned bronze in the 50m backstroke.

D’Ambrosio, who set a Championship record of 1:45.15 in winning 200m freestyle gold on day 2, also completed a double with a 100m freestyle victory in 47.88. Like Shortt, he has also won an additional bronze, in his case after finishing third in the 50m freestyle.

Great Britain’s Jacob Mills took 100m freestyle silver in 48.22, ahead of Lithuania’s 16-year-old European junior 50m freestyle champion Tajus Juska, who secured bronze in 48.72.

Turkiye enjoyed a glorious finale at these Championships as 17-year-old Tuncelli successfully defended his men’s 1500m in 14.48.81, having already retained his world junior 800m title, and his compatriot and contemporary Allahverdi earned men’s 50m breaststroke gold by just 0.01 from Germany’s Jan Grafe as he clocked 26.98.

Japan’s world junior record holder Shin Ohashi, beaten to 100m and 200m breaststroke gold by Filip Nowacki, finished ahead of his British rival today to take bronze in 27.12.

In the 1500m final, bronze went to Vasileios Kakoulakis in 15:00.29.

Turkiye also won a medal in the men’s 200m butterfly, where Tuncer Erturk finished third in 1:58.21, with Hungary taking silver through David Antal, who clocked 1:56.87 – 0.71 behind South Africa’s Kris Mihaylov.

Italy’s 14-year-old Alessandra Mao announced her huge promise by taking bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle in 1:57.00, 0.75 off the Championship record swum by China’s Peiqi Yang.

Germany’s European junior 200m breaststroke champion Lena Ludwig took silver in that event, clocking 2:26.56 behind South Korea’s Sua Moon, who won in 2:24.77.

Britain’s Theodora Taylor also earned silver as she finished just 0.02 behind Rylee Erisman of the United States in the women’s 50m freestyle, clocking 24.72.

Croatia’s Jana Pavalic, disqualified for a starting infringement after coming home first in the women’s 50m freestyle at the European Juniors, had a far happier experience this time round as she secured bronze in 24.85.

Britain and Italy added further honours in the men’s 4x100m medley, where they finished second and third respectively in 3:35.02 and 3:35.86 as Japan took gold in 3:35.00.

The neutral athletes team took bronze in the concluding event of the Championships, the women’s 4x100m medley, as gold and silver went to the United States and China.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics

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