Super silver and brilliant bronze as Marshall and Whittle secure more medals

A successful day for Great Britain on day two of the European Junior Swimming Championships with Jonathan Marshall winning silver and Jacob Whittle adding to his collection with bronze.

The biggest haul of the day went to Marshall as he took silver with an incredibly fast 25.21 in the Men’s 50m Backstroke Final in Bucharest.

The FAST swimmer was on top form as he held onto second place on the run to the wall in a race where the whole field was separated by just over a second.

The teenager finished 0.56 off Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk who won the event, breaking the 25 second barrier with a time of 24.65.

Marshall’s time was just clear of the rest of the pack with the next four swimmers finishing within 0.06 of one another in the battle for bronze.

Unfortunately for Great Britain’s Matthew Ward he touched the wall as the last of that four, finishing sixth with a time of 25.42, 0.06 off the bronze medal place.

Both Marshall and Ward improved on their times from the semi-final with the pair setting times of 25.30 and 25.50 respectively yesterday.

Whittle wins second medal of the competition

There was another medal for Britain and for Whittle as he took bronze in the Men’s 200m Freestyle Final.

Whittle got off the blocks quickly and kept pace with eventual champion and World Junior record holder, David Popovici of Romania.

The ever impressive Popovici was eventually too strong but Whittle performed well to beat his previous personal best time of 1:48:10.

Whittle fell just short of silver as Italy’s Lorenzo Galossi snuck in ahead of Whittle by just 0.14 to take second place off the Brit.

Whittle’s time of 1:47:85 was a new personal best in the event in what has been a successful championship’s for him thus far.

The Loughborough Performance Centre Swimmer picked up his second medal of the meet already after being part of the silver medal winning team in the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay on day one.

Evan Jones finished seventh with a time of 1:50:24 that was over a second faster than his time in the preliminary round yesterday.

Mixed relay agony

Despite an excellent performance all round it was despair for Britain’s 4x100m Freestyle Mixed Relay as they missed out on a medal by just 0.15.

The team of Whittle, Alexander Painter, Eva Okaro and Erin Little swam their hearts out in the final event of the day but fell agonisingly short of another relay medal for Britain.

Whittle started things off for the team, storming into third place from the off and holding it before passing over to Painter.

Painter and Okaro swam commendable middle legs, keeping Britain within touching distance of Romania and Poland who led early on.

Okaro rounded off the third leg in fourth, virtually level with Hungary in what looked to be a close battle for the bronze medal place.

Erin Little came in for the closing leg and closed gap to leading pair but Hungary surged on through to not just take bronze but to win the relay as a whole.

The British team finished with a time of 3:30:00 overall with Hungary taking gold with 3:28:83 just 1.17 ahead.

Okaro on the hunt for another medal

Okaro was busy on day two as before her efforts in the relay she qualified for the Women’s 50m Freestyle Final after making it through as eighth fastest overall in the semi-finals.

The Sevenoaks swimmer, who medalled at last year’s junior championships, finished with a time of 25.74 to book her spot in tomorrow’s finale.

Okaro was fourth in her semi-final and was less than half a second off the fastest time set by Germany’s Nina Sandrine Jazy (25.27).

Darcy Revitt also swam well to finish just behind Okaro in the opening semi-final but finished just outside a finals place, finishing as second reserve with a time of 25.91.

Smith makes final

Leamington swimmer George Smith qualified for the Men’s 200m Individual Medley Final after coming through his semi-final as the third fastest swimmer.

Smith finished third in the faster of the two semi-finals with a time of 2:02:93 to secure his place in the final tomorrow.

He was one of the only three swimmers to swim under 2:03:00 and was fastest of anyone over the first 50m in the semi-finals.

Sanberk Yigit Oktar set the fastest time of 2:02:21 as he looks to be the one to beat ahead of tomorrow’s final.

Kaden Edwards finished sixth in the opening semi-final just 1.39 off a place in the final.

Widdows and Baillie just miss out on finals place

Britain’s Hollie Widdows and Ashleigh Baillie both fell short on a place in the Women’s 100m Butterfly final by the narrowest of margins.

The 15-year old pair both swam strongly but missed out on a final place with Widdows making it as first reserve.

Mount Kelly’s swimmer Widdows went in the first of the semi-finals, finishing fifth with a time of 1:00:74.

Baillie followed in the second semi-final but could only manage seventh despite an impressive time of a 1:01:78.

Overall that left Widdows as the ninth fastest, an agonising 0.04 off the final qualifying place that was filled by Denmark’s Kristine Nillsson Norby.

Baillie was 1:08 off a place in the final on what will be a great experience for the young British duo.

Image from LEN European Aquatics.

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