Huge Swimming Success: 15-year-old Vivien Jackl European Championship Medalist

Hungary’s medal collection at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade continued to grow on Wednesday. Fifteen-year-old Vivien Jackl won the silver medal in the women’s 400m medley, while Zsuzsanna Jakabos won bronze. Also finishing in second place in the 100m freestyle was Nándor Németh, who nearly beat Kristóf Milák’s national record. Zalán Sárkány finished third in the 800m freestyle with a great chase. The day was capped off with a fantastic swim by the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay team, which put them on the top step of the podium.

Katinka Hosszú, three-time Olympic champion swimmer, is not competing at the European Aquatics Championships this time, unlike her old rival Zsuzsanna Jakabos. She qualified for the 400m medley final with the second best time. Vivien Jackl, who is only fifteen years old, was even faster than her in the morning preliminary race, proving in her first adult European Championships that she could be Katinka Hosszú’s successor, writes Magyar Nemzet.

The two Hungarians battled it out for the silver and bronze medals, with Jackl finishing second in 4:38.96 and Jakabos third.

I am a bit sad about the time, but my coach told me to focus on the medal and the placement, not to let it get out of hand. The morning swim still stuck with me a little bit,”

said Jackl.

The women’s 4x100m freestyle relay was also a huge Hungarian success. Hungary’s team consisting of Petra Senánszky, Minna Ábrahám, Panna Ugrai, and Nikolett Pádár won the gold medal with a new national record. Hungary won the European Championship title in this event again after 1954. The team won the final with a time of 3:36.77, thereby consigning to the past the record of 3:37.64 set in Rome in 2009, by the quartet of Eszter Dara, Evelyn Verrasztó, Ágnes Mutina, and Katinka Hosszú.

“I knew we could do it. I am proud of the girls because everyone swam great,” said Pádár, who was only the third Hungarian to finish in the 200m freestyle, her main event of the morning, and therefore did not qualify for the semi-finals. Minna Ábrahám said that they were not nervous about the final, they were in good spirits before and managed to keep their form on paper. She added that

if they continue to improve, this team could be an Olympic finalist.

In the men’s 100m freestyle, world championship bronze medalist Nándor Németh swam a great final, approaching Kristóf Milák‘s national record by two hundredths of a second. His personal best of 47.49 seconds was only good enough for second place, after David Popovici swam 46.88, eight hundredths off the world record.

In the men’s 800m freestyle, Zalán Sárkány won the European bronze medal with a great effort. Sárkány set a personal best of 7:50.36 in Tuesday’s preliminary race, but in the final he improved on his time to finish in 7:49.29. The event was won by Ukraine’s Mihajlo Romanchuk in 7:46.20.

The water is incredibly warm; under normal conditions I think I could have swam three seconds better. But I am very happy to have won a medal,”

said Sarkány.

Via MTI, Magyar Nemzet, Featured image: MTI/Derencsényi István