Wasick wishing for podium finishes at Lublin 2025 as Vanotterdijk, Quadarella, Gose and Steenbergen eye gold
Poland’s Katarzyna Wasick, who said today that being part of a home European Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships meant “everything” to her, will strive mightily to earn a title at Lublin 2025 when competition begins tomorrow.
The 33-year-old US-based swimmer’s podium prospects look strong as she tops the rankings for the women’s 50m freestyle, in which event she has won long course world silver and bronze within the last three years.
But she faces strong opposition in the 50m and 100m freestyle from Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergen, world 100m freestyle champion at the last two World Championships, France’s Beryl Gastaldello, 100m silver medallist at last year’s World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m), Britain’s Freya Anderson, who won 100m bronze and 200m gold at the last edition of these Championships at Otopeni in 2023, and the Italian pair of Silvia Di Pietro and Sara Curtis.
Anderson’s defence of her 200m title will come under heavy pressure given the presence of Steenbergen, her compatriot Freya Colbert, Hungary’s Nikolett Padar and Minna Abraham, the Czech Republic’s European 100 and 200m freestyle champion Barbora Seemanova and the rising force of Belgium’s 20-year-old Roos Vanotterdijk, albeit that the latter’s strongest event is the butterfly, where she holds the European 100m title.
Seemanova is also involved in a 400m freestyle event where Italy’s Simona Quadarella will defend her title against a field that includes Isabel Gose, the German swimmer who won Paris 2024 bronze at 1500m and added world short course 1500m gold and 800m silver last December.
Gose and Quadarella – who took 1500m silver at this summer’s World Championships – are also in the women’s 800m, where Hungary’s Ajna Kesely and Sarah Dumont of Belgium will be strong challengers.
Quadarella and Kesely took respective silver and bronze in the Otopeni 800m and 1500m and both will be keen to move up.
Curtis and Vanotterdijk will also fancy their medal chances in the 50m and 100m backstroke, with Sweden’s Louise Hansson also looking likely for trips to the podium.
Meanwhile Poland’s European 100m backstroke champion Adela Piskorska, who trains in the Aqua Lublin pool, will carry strong chances over that distance and 200m. If motivation alone decided medals, she would already be standing on top of a podium…
Estonia’s 18-year-old Eneli Jefimova, a world short course bronze medallist and European champion at 100m breaststroke in 2024, will defend her 100m breaststroke title with high confidence.
She will also contest the 50m breaststroke against the Lithuanian swimmer ten years her senior who won her fourth world short course title in that event last December, Ruta Meilutyte. Germany’s Anna Elendt also has strong medal chances in the breaststroke events, particularly the 200m, where she leads the rankings from Vanotterdijk.
The latter will figure strongly in the 50m and 100m butterfly, but Tessa Giele of The Netherlands, Hansson, Gasteldello and Ireland’s Ellen Walshe will also carry strong prodium prospects.
Vanotterdijk and Walshe look likely to figure strongly also in the 200m medley along with Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
The post Wasick wishing for podium finishes at Lublin 2025 as Vanotterdijk, Quadarella, Gose and Steenbergen eye gold first appeared on European Aquatics®.