2026 European Junior Championships: Day Five Finals Live Recap ...Middle East

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2026 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

We have a stacked series of finals and semi-finals to fill our schedule on the penultimate night of racing at the 2026 European Junior Championships.

The girls’ 100m freestyle will be a battle from start to finish, with four competitors having dipped under the 55-second barrier during last night’s session. Top contenders include Neutral Athlete Kseniia Sorokina, Germany’s dynamic Linda Roth and Italy’s Alessandra Mao, who is only 15 years of age.

Semi-finals of the boys’ 100m freestyle are also on tonight’s agenda, featuring Spanish national record holder Luca Hoek.

Hoek topped the boys’ 100m freestyle heats, producing a morning outing of 49.11 to hold a slight advantage over a pair of Neutral Athletes.

Matvei Miliaev is next in line at 49.20, with teammate Egor Proshin rounding out the top tier in 49.43.

Lithuania’s Tajus Juska is also in the mix, courtesy of his morning swim of 49.43. Juska was the silver medalist in this race last year and is also the reigning World Junior Championships bronze medalist.

Add in the boys’ and girls’ 800m freestyle final, semi-finals in the 100m back and breast, along with the boys’ 4x200m free relay and tonight’s affair qualifies as must-see action.

BOYS 800 FREESTYLE – FINAL

GOLD – Grigorii Vekovishchev (NA), 7:52.31 SILVER – Mikolaj Litoborski (POL), 7:53.36 BRONZE – Maksim Gusev (NA), 7:54.37

The boys’ 800m freestyle kicked things off this evening, with a pair of Russians, competing as Neutral Athletes, getting onto the podium.

Grigorii Vekovishchev was the top performer, hitting a time of 7:52.31 to grab the gold. This was an improvement in medal standing from last year when he snagged the silver, although his 2025 time was slightly quicker at 7:51.49.

Vekovishchev also nabbed hardware in this event at the 2025 World Junior Championships, where his time of 7:50.04 garnered him the bronze.

Tonight, teammate Maxim Gusev reaped the bronze in 7:54.37, with Poland’s Mikolaj Litoborski splitting the pair in 7:53.36, good enough for silver.

GIRLS 200 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

GOLD – Vivien Jackl (HUN), 2:09.42 SILVER – Serafima Fokina (NA), 2:10.06 BRONZE – Boroka Kertesz (HUN), 2:10.87

As with our first event, this girls’ 200m fly also saw two swimmers from the same country get to the wall fast enough to collect medals.

17-year-old Vivien Jackl proved too quick to catch, stopping the clock at a swift 2:09.42 as the sole athlete in the field to dip under the 2:10 barrier.

Neutral Athlete Serafima Fokina was next to the wall in 2:10.06, holding a healthy advantage over Jackl’s countrywoman Boroka Kertesz, who rounded out the podium in 2:10.87.

Jackl’s performance here checks in as a new lifetime best for the once-Shane Tusup-trained rising star. Entering this competition, Jackl’s PB rested at the 2:10.36 from earlier this season, so she cleared the 2:10 barrier for the first time in her career.

Fokina is carrying momentum from a silver medal-worthy performance in the girls’ 100m butterfly sprint and is also the reigning European Junior Championships bronze medalist in this longer race. She owns a PB of 2:07.67 from scoring bronze in the 200m fly at last year’s World Junior Championships as well.

Although Jackl’s hardware arsenal includes multiple European Junior Championships medals in the 400m IM and distance freestyle events, the Hungarian just earned her first elite international podium in this 2fly.

BOYS 100 FREESTYLE – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

As expected, the semi-finals of the boys’ 100m freestyle picked up the speed from this morning’s heats, with the top four performers this evening going under the 49-second threshold

Neutral Athlete Egor Proshin led the way, producing a quick 48.51 to land lane four for tomorrow night’s main event.

18-year-old Proshin just logged a new lifetime best en route to beating his competitors, with his 48.51 slicing .18 off his previous PB of 48.69 from earlier this season. He’s only been under the 49-second benchmark three times, including tonight.

Spanish national record holder Luca Hoek has the opportunity to defend his 2025 European Junior Championsips title in this event, posting 48.76 as the #2 performer out of the semi-finals.

The teen represents the first-ever man from Spain to clear the 48-second barrier in this 1free event. While competing at the Spanish Open Championships last month, he set a lifetime best of 47.72 to nail the new national standard and make history.

Reigning World Junior Championships bronze medalist Tajus Juska of Lithuania also put his hat in the ring with a solid performance of 48.81, followed by Matvei Miliaev, who turned in 48.95 for the Neutral Athletes.

Juska snagged silver in this event last year in 48.57 behind winner Hoek. He’s looking to exact revenge from being shut out of the 100m fly final despite having won the event last year in Slovakia.

GIRLS 100 FREESTYLE – FINAL

GOLD – Alessandra Mao (ITA), 54.28 SILVER – Kira Manokhina (NA), 54.37 BRONZE – Emma Wood (GBR), 54.61

Wow, wow, wow.

Alessandra Mao of Italy is only 15 years of age, but she just awed spectators with a massive outing to win this women’s 100m freestyle.

Mao crushed a monster lifetime best of 54.28 to grab the gold, successfully fending off a charging Neutral Athlete, Kira Manokhina.

Manokhina settled for silver just .09 behind in 54.37, with Great Britain’s Emma Wood hanging on for bronze in 54.61.

Spanish speedster Irene Ciercoles (54.68), Germany’s ace Linda Roth (54.74) and top-seeded NA athlete Kseniia Sorokina (54.92) were all denied medals in this tightly-packed contest.

Entering this competition, Mao’s career-quickest time sat at the 54.84 produced for 6th place in this event at the 2025 World Junior Championships.

Tonight, splitting 26.51/27.77, Mao just became the 7th-fastest Italian woman in history. She also overtakes the Italian Age Record formerly owned by Olympic icon Federica Pellegrini.

While Manokhina’s time tonight was slightly off her PB of 54.18 from last month, 18-year-old Wood of GBR dropped significant time off her previous career-swiftest swim of 54.92. That time was notched at this year’s Aquatics GB Championships. Wood now bumps herself up the all-time British rankings to share slot #13, ironically with Olympic finalist Abbie Wood.

BOYS 100 BACKSTROKE – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

France’s 200m backstroke champion here, Nathan Muratory, entered tonight’s 100m backstroke semi-finals as the top contender, clocking 54.60 this morning. That was over a second off his PB of 53.45 from a domestic meet earlier this season.

However, the 17-year-old University of Michigan commit added some time to check in with a semi-final swim of 55.06, dropping down to the #2 seed.

Nailing the top spot was Neutral Athlete Mikhail Shcherbakov.

18-year-old Shcherbakov improved upon his 55.20 morning swim to establish himself as the man to beat with a rapid result of 54.30. The teen owns a lifetime best of 53.54 from April of this year, so look for him to activate another gear during tomorrow night’s medal-contesting event potentially.

Muratory’s teammate Chrissander Cerda captured the 3rd seed, with Great Britain’s Dean Fearn lurking as the 4th-seeded swimmer in 55.28. Fearn is scheduled to also take on the 50m butterfly semi-finals later in this session.

GIRLS 100 BREASTSTROKE – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

BOYS 100 BREASTSTROKE – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

GIRLS 50 BUTTERFLY – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

BOYS 50 BUTTERFLY – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

GIRLS 200 IM – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

GIRLS 100 BACKSTROKE – SEMI-FINALS

Top 8:

GIRLS 800 FREESTYLE – FINAL

GOLD –  SILVER –  BRONZE – 

BOYS 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY – FINAL

GOLD –  SILVER –  BRONZE – 

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