European S/C Championships, Day 2 Finals: John Shortt Blasts World Junior Record to Win 200 Back
The Irish swimming renaissance has had plenty of contributors in the last 18 months. Add John Shortt to the not-so-short(t) list of them.
Shortt won gold at the 2025 European Short-Course Championships in the men’s 200 backstroke Wednesday, his time of 1:47.89 setting a world junior record and the meet record.
His record swim highlighted a busy second night of finals in Lublin, Poland. All the action:
Women’s 50 butterfly final
A quarter-second blanketed the nine semifinalists on Tuesday and required a swim-off for eighth place. Replace the two swim-offers with their swim-off times and the spread was 0.16 seconds for nine finishers.
So a close race had to be in the offing Wednesday night, right?
Nope, said Martine Dambourg. The Danish junior swimmer absolutely blasted the final 25 meters to go from sixth to the win in 24.61, her margin of victory .23 seconds. For the third straight swim, she lowered her European Junior record, this one clubbing .45 seconds off the time she set in semifinals. And she made a decent run at Claire Curzan’s world junior record of 24.55. It’s also the Danish senior record.
Second place went to Ross Vanotterdijk of Belgium in 24.84. It took breaking 25 seconds to get on the podium, with Beryl Gastaldello third in 24.93, .04 up on Maaike de Waard for bronze.
Men’s 50 butterfly final
Noe Ponti remains the king of the 50 fly short-course, his time of 21.54 besting the field by three tenths. Ponti didn’t quite match his world record of 21.32 or his meet record of 21.51 from semifinals.
Second was longtime stalwart Szebastian Szabo, whose meet record Ponti took a day earlier. The Hungarian added a silver medal in 21.89 for his eighth career Euros Short-Course medal. Maxime Grousset grabbed third with a time of 21.99, his second trip sub-22 in as many days.
Fourth was Simone Stefani in 22.13.
Women’s 200 backstroke final
It’s a Spanish gold in the 200 backstroke thanks to Carmen Weiler Sastre. The 21-year-old pulled away steadily for the biggest accolade of her individual career, winning in 2:01.66. She was more than a second clear of semis pace-setter Katie Shanahan, who grabbed silver in 2:02.79.
The British swimmer jumped from third to second on the final 25 meters, getting .23 seconds ahead of France’s Pauline Mahieu to swap medal colors. Portugal’s Camila Rodrigues Rebelo was fourth in 2:03.51.
Men’s 200 backstroke final
John Shortt made short work of the field in the 200 back, his time of 1:47.89 landing him seventh tenths up on France’s Mewen Tomac. Tomac had led at the 150-meter mark, but Shortt rallied home in 27.67 to Tomac’s 28.99 to get the gold.
It completes a monstrous two days for Short, who entered with a best time of 1:51.60 from the 2024 World Championships that had been the Irish record. He lowered it to 1:50.65 in prelims, then hopscotched past 1:49 altogether to 1:48.84 in semifinals. Down into the 1:47s it goes. With it, he downs Kliment Kolesnikov’s meet record/European junior record/world junior record, set at 1:48.02 in 2017.
Behind Tomac was Jan Cejka, who went 1:49.43 to hold off a crowd for bronze. It’s the first male medal at this meet for Czechia/the Czech Republic since 200 medley relay bronze in 2012.
Cejka finished .05 seconds up on Luke Greenbank for bronze. Lorenzo Mora was fifth in 1:49.74.
Women’s 200 freestyle semifinals
The 200 free events were all about the British swimmers. On the women’s side, that means Team Freya.
Freya Colbert finished first in semifinals in 1:51.94, with Freya Anderson fourth in 1:53.69. Between were Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands in 1:53.35. Third place went to Minna Abraham in 1:53.50.
Hungary, which had three of the top four in prelims, gets two into the final, Abraham joined by Nikolett Padar in sixth. Those two American collegians are joined by another in Poland’s Justina Kozan in eighth.
Men’s 200 freestyle semifinals
Duncan Scott and Lucas Henveaux tied for the win in semifinals in 1:41.56. Scott’s fellow British swimmer Jack McMillan was third in 1:41.69, making good on the 1-2-3 finish in prelims that left hard-luck third-place finisher Matt Richards out of semifinals thanks to the two-per-nation limit.
Fourth was Poland’s Kamil Sieradzki. Lithuania has two in the final, with Thomas Lukminas sixth and the ageless Danas Rapsys eighth. That leaves no room for Lukas Martens, eliminated in 10th.
Women’s 100 breaststroke final
Call it an early birthday present for Eneli Jefimova, who turns 19 at the end of the month. She’s now a two-time European Short-Course champion in this event, defending her title in 1:02.82 to augment the long-course 100 breast title. The Estonian added the meet record, taking down the 2013 time set by Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte at 1:02.92.
Jefimova left no doubt in the final, nearly a second ahead of the chasers. Florine Gaspard held off the field with a time of 1:03.73 and a silver medal for Belgium. Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko finished third in 1:03.90, rallying in the final 25 meters to nip German long-course World Champion Anna Elendt by .01 seconds. Hungary’s Dominika Sztandera was a further .06 back.
Men’s 100 breaststroke final
Caspar Corbeau completed two days of domination by taking home gold in 55.85, fourth tents off the meet record. He was .37 seconds ahead of Emre Sakci of Hungary, using a superior third 25 to surge to the front.
Sakci picked up silver in 56.22, rallying from fifth at the 75 to first. He dragged Luka Mladenovic with him, the Michigan swimmer from Austria going from seventh to third at the final wall in 56.27.
It came at the expense of Italian Simone Cerasuolo. He touched at 75 meters even with Corbeau but faded to fourth in 56.33, .06 off the medal stand. Carles Coll Marti of Spain was fifth in 56.42. Koen de Groot was in position to add a second Dutchman to the podium in third at the turn for home, but he settled for sixth, a spot ahead of Nicolo Martinenghi, a non-factor in the race.
Women’s 100 IM semifinals
Marrit Steenbergen set the pace in a semifinals full of people pulling doubles, with enough left after the 200 free semis to get the top seed in 57.96. She was .01 ahead of Barbora Janickova of Czechia and .06 up on Roose Vanotterdijk.
Steenbergen, Vanotterdijk, Martine Dambourg (sixth), Beryl Gastaldello (seventh) and Anastasia Gorbenko (eighth) all successfully navigated doubles to make the final.
Men’s 100 IM semifinals
Noe Ponti is again the man to beat, and Maxime Grousset is again the man chasing him.
In a replay of the 50 fly, Ponti led the pace in 51.24. He had Grousset in his heat in second in 51.37. They’ll be in adjacent lanes in the final.
Luka Mladenovic, not weighed down by his new medal or the lactic acid, was third in 51.57. He’s got fellow Austrian Heiko Gigler in the final with him. Miroslav Knedla was fourth.
Mixed 200 medley relay final
Euros is three relays old, and the Italians have started it gold-silver-gold. The quartet of Francesco Lazzari, Simone Cerasuolo, Silvia Di Pietro and Sara Curtis went 1:36.09 to win and set a meet record, clipping .09 seconds off the 2021 mark set by the Netherlands.
The Dutch quartet exactly matched that time, but it was good only for silver. They were one of only two teams to opt for a female backstroker in Maaike de Waard, joining Caspar Corbeau, Sean Niewold and Marrit Steenbergen. The Dutch took the lead with Niewold over Di Pietro. But Curtis split 22.92 on the anchor to wrest the lead away from Steenbergen (23.11).
Poland gave the home fans a thrill in third, Kasia Wasick helping them jump past Estonia and into third in 1:36.98. Denmark was fourth.
Three teams went with female breaststrokers, finishing fifth, seventh and eighth.
