Marrit Steenbergen has Tuesday her sixth medal won at the European Swimming Championships in Rome. She took second place in the 200m individual medley. The gold went to the Israeli Anastasya Gorbenko, the bronze to the Italian Sara Franceschi.
From the start Gorbenko was way ahead and seemed unable to catch up for almost the entire race. Yet she fell silent in the last 50 meters of the race, so that the gold still seemed within reach for Steenbergen. In the end Steenbergen came up just short and finished two tenths slower than the winner. Steenbergen qualified for the final with the second fastest time.
Earlier this European Championship, 22-year-old Steenbergen already won four gold and one bronze medal. She won gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter mixed medley and 200-meter freestyle. She won bronze in the 4×100-meter freestyle. Tuesday’s silver medal is her sixth medal, which means she is still chasing the medal record of the European Women’s Long Track. Franziska van Almsick (1993), Laure Manaudou (2006) and Sarah Sjöström (2014) came to seven podium places at one European Championship. Steenbergen will be in action on Tuesday evening in the 4 × 200 meter freestyle mixed.
Valerie van Roon knew earlier in the evening the bronze medal in the 50m freestyle. She did that in a time of 24.26. The first place went to the Swedish Sarah Sjöström (23.91) and the silver went to the Polish Katarzyna Wasick (24.20). The other Dutch woman who was allowed to start in the final was Tessa Giele. She finished in fourth place.