Stephens claims third bronze of 2016 EJs

Laura Stephens bagged her third medal of the 2016 European Junior Championships with 100m Butterfly bronze in Hungary.

The Plymouth Leander swimmer touched in 59.94 to touch third and repeat her result from Thursday’s 200m Fly and from last year’s European Games final.

Stephens also won bronze with the all-English 4x100m Medley Relay quartet on day three.

Three swimmers in the final beat the minute mark with Russia’s Polina Egorova taking gold on 59.00 from Hungary’s Petra Barocsai (59.87).

And Stephens dug deep to claim the third place on the podium, holding off Italy’s Ilaria Cusinato by just 0.06 seconds. City of Leeds’ Amelia Clynes was also in the 100m Fly final, finishing fifth in 1:00.52.

The result continues an excellent season for Stephens, who made her senior European debut in London earlier this year.

The 17-year old set a PB 58.84 to finish ninth in the 100m Fly in London, then swam the fly leg for the women’s 4x100m Medley quartet who went on to win gold in the final.

Hibbott narrowly denied second medal

Holly Hibbott was narrowly denied a second individual medal of the Championships in the 200m Freestyle final.

Having won 400m Freestyle silver on day two in Hungary, the 16-year old Stockport Metro swimmer beat her PB 2:01.07 from the semis with a 2:00.36 effort in the final.

Hibbott missed the podium by 1.98 seconds with Slovenia’s Janja Segel claiming bronze on 1:58.38 behind Hungary’s Ajna Kesely (1:57.96) and Czech Republic’s Barbora Seemanova (1:58.14).

Sedgefield’s Hannah Featherstone was also in the final, finishing eighth in 2:01.53.

  • Click here to view results from the 2016 European Junior Swimming Championships in Hungary.
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