Led by Anna Elendt and Isabel Gose, the German swimmers ensured a real shower of medals at the European Short Course Championships in Lublin. Four months after her sensational World Cup gold, Elendt was crowned European champion over 200 m breaststroke in the 25 m pool, while Gose secured her second gold medal at the title fights in Poland with a German record time of 8:01.90 minutes in the 800 m freestyle. Nina Holt and Maya Werner rounded off the successful evening for the German Swimming Association (DSV) with two bronze medals.
Just three days after her triumph, including a European record (3:54.33 minutes) in the 400 m freestyle, Gose also swam twice the distance to the title and shattered the German record in the process. The Magdeburg native beat her own national record (8:05.42) from last year by almost four seconds and thus also set a championship record. Her club colleague Werner secured bronze in 8:14.41 minutes, silver went to the Italian Simona Quadarella (8:03.00).
Elendt had recently won gold in the 200 m breaststroke in 2:18.16 minutes, her first medal at a European Championships. The woman from Frankfurt narrowly missed out on the podium on Wednesday. In the 100 m breaststroke, she finished fourth, missing the medals by a hundredth of a second. On the long course, Elendt swam to the world championship title on this route in Singapore in the summer.
Holt also secured her first European Championship medal with bronze in the 100 m backstroke in 56.72 seconds. Already after the preliminary heat and the semi-finals there were signs that the Magdeburg woman would be on the podium. In both races she improved the German record and reduced it to 56.60 seconds. In the final, Holt stayed just above her national record. However, only Britain’s Lauren Cox (56.51 seconds) and Maaike de Waard from the Netherlands (56.62) were faster.
Angelina Köhler, however, missed a medal in the 100 m butterfly. The Berliner, who won silver on this route at the last European Short Course Championships, came sixth in 55.83 seconds. Likewise Jeremias Pock (Nuremberg) over 200 m breaststroke (2:04.52 minutes).