2026 European Championships: Day 2 Prelims Preview ...Middle East

By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam

2026 European Swimming Championships

DAY 1 PRELIMS START LIST

Day 1 Prelims Schedule

After the stunningly-fast finals session we saw last night, day 2 at the 2026 European Championships promises more of the same. We have five individual events and the mixed medley relay on the docket tonight, with the individual events a near-mirror of the events yesterday, however with no 400 IM for the women.

Women’s 50 Butterfly

We will see Sarah Sjostrom (25.05) for the first time at this meet, as she returns after taking a year off while pregnant with her son Adrian. She is the top seed by a quarter of a second over Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk (25.31), who won bronze at the World Championships last summer.

Silvia di Pietro, the Italian record holder , is seeded third in 25.49, with Angelina Kohler and 2024 European Champion Sara Junevik both entered in 25.50. Tessa Giele (25.65), Maaike de Waard (25.62), and Kim Busch (25.83) make up a strong Dutch contingent which will be fighting for two available spots in the semi-finals.

Neutral Athletes B has four athletes entered between 25.54 and 25.80, who will need to go all out this morning to be among the top two from their nation. We saw Oleg Kostin, the #9 performer in history, miss out in the men’s 50 fly yesterday so there is no room to rest here for Arina Surkova (25.54), Aleksandra Kuznetsova (25.59), Mariia Osetrova (25.60), and Anita Grischenko (25.80).

Men’s 100 Freestyle

After the men’s 4×200 free relay last night, several of the top contenders have stretched their legs already, but top seed David Popovici will dive into the pool for the first time. He won the gold at the World Championships last summer as he posted the #2 performance of all time, a 46.51 which reset his own European record.

Egor Kornev (46.96) is the only other man entered under 47 seconds, and after he demolished his 50 fly PB last night he could be in store for a big swim here as well. He is one of four swimmers for NAB so cannot afford to take this too easy, with Ivan Girev (47.63), Andrei Minakov (48.01) and Aleksandr Shchegolev (48.11) to contend with.

Maxime Grousset looks in top form having recovered from a foot injury, and is the #3 seed in 47.33 ahead of Great Britain’s Matt Richards (47.53). Hungarian pair Nandor Nemeth (47.72) and Kristof Milak (47.89) should also progress through comfortably, with Milak looking fantastic in the men’s 50 fly last night.

We will see national record holders Joshua Salchow (47.88) and Luca Hoek le Guenedal (47.72) dive in for Germany and Spain respectively, while Jere Hribar (47.93) set a new lifetime best in the 50 fly yesterday and will be hoping to lower his Croatian record here.

Carlos D’Ambrosio reset the Italian record in the 200 free last night, leading off the 4×200 free relay in 1:44.72, and is the #9 seed in 47.78. Watch out for the Netherlands’ Sean Niewold too, who set a new best of 47.80 last month, while D’Ambrosio will need to finish ahead of at least two of Manuel Frigo (48.08), Alessandro Miressi (48.46), and Lorenzo Ballarati (48.64) to make it through to the semi-finals.

Women’s 100 Breaststroke

Angharad Evans is the top seed and will have her first swim of the week here, after Great Britain looked in better shape on day 1 than they did at the Commonwealth Games. She is entered with her British record of 1:04.96 from April, 0.23 seconds faster than 2025 World champion Anna Elendt‘s 1:05.19.

Anita Bottazzo (1:05.61) and Benedetta Pilato (1:05.80) are also entered under 1:06, with Eneli Jefimona (1:05.81), Evgeniia Chikunova (1:05.97) and Mona McSharry (1:05.99) also under the barrier. McSharry won bronze in Paris two years ago at the Olympics, while Jefimova is the reigning European champion in both short course and long course.

Tes Schouten (1:06.37) is the #10 seed after missing last season through injury, as ten swimmers are entered faster than Jefimova’s winning time from 2024.

The only swimmers who will need to be wary of the “two-per-nation” rule are the Italians – Pilato, Bottazzo, and Lisa Angiolini (1:06.01) are all entered in the top ten but only two can progress to the semi-finals

Men’s 200 Backstroke

We have just four heats of the men’s 200 back, but we are not short on quality. Hubert Kos (1:53.19) will swim his first event of the week as the fastest seed and reigning world champion, but we also have the World Championship silver medalist Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (1:54.47) and Greece’s Apostolos Siskos (1:54.12), who is the fastest man in the world this season.

Roman Mityukov (1:54.83), the 2024 Olympic Games bronze medalist, is the fourth man entered under 1:55, but Tokyo Olympic medalist Luke Greenbank (1:55.27) will also be a threat. Italy’s 100 back world record holder Thomas Ceccon (1:55.71) is also in final after qualifying for tonight’s men’s 50 fly final yesterday, and France’s European Junior Champion Nathan Muratory (1:57.31), who clocked a 1:55.88 in Munich last month, will be a threat.

Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez (1:55.95), who won gold at the 2024 World Championships but didn’t qualify for the Spanish team last summer, has his first swim of the meet in the final heat. Jon Shortt (1:55.70) and Cornelius Jahn (1:56.63), both of whom swam on the 4×200 free relay yesterday, will join him there.

France have four swimmers in the three circle-seeded heats, so Ndoye-Brouard, Muratory, Antoine Herlem (1:56.52) and Mewen Tomac (1:56.83) will have to be at their best to make it through to tonight’s semi-finals.

Mixed 4×100 Medley Relay

After the women’s 100 free and men’s 100 breast last night, we have a little more clarity on this relay. NAB are probably still favorites, but Great Britain are two from two on relays so far and their male breaststrokers looked good yesterday.

Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Germany should also be among the top teams in this field. NAB were the world champions last summer in 3:37.97, while the Dutch were 4th in a national record of 3:40.97, one spot ahead of Italy. Germany and Great Britain failed to make the final, but both looked reasonably strong across multiple races yesterday.

With the women’s 100 breast and men’s 100 free this morning, and finals of the women’s 100 free and men’s 100 breast this evening, there figure to be a lot of doubles. The teams with depth to avoid those this morning may come off best.

Men’s 800 Freestyle

There look to be two races here – the one between everyone for the top eight, and the one between the three German swimmers to be among the fastest two from their nation and progress to the final. With European record holder Johannes Liebmann (7:37.94), former European Record holder Sven Schwarz (7:38.12), and Oliver Klemet (7:44.61) being the top three seeds, we should see some fast swims.

Liebmann and Klemet will have the luxury of knowing what they need to do to advance as they swim in the final heat, with Schwarz in heat 3. He will have Victor Johansson (7:44.81), Luca De Tullio (7:47.60) and Croatia’s 2019 World Junior Champion Franko Grgic (7:45.92) to race, but the final heat looks the more stacked.

Alongside Liebmann and Klemet, that contains 2024 Olympic Champion Daniel Wiffen (7:45.17), 2024 European bronze medalist Zalan Sarkany (7:49.44) and his compatriot Kristof Rasovszky (7:47.04). Lucas Henveaux (7:55.57) and Greek record holder Dimitrios Markos (7:52.45), who demolished his 200 free record last night, will also have designs on making tomorrow evening’s final

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