Marrit Steenbergen took the first major individual title in her career at the European Championship long track on Friday. The swimmer was the best in the 100-meter freestyle final in Rome after she had already impressed before. Nyls Korstanje (50 meters butterfly) and Arno Kamminga (100 meters breaststroke) did not win a medal.
Steenbergen set a fine time of 53 seconds and 24 hundredths in the final. She held off the French Charlotte Bonnet (53.62), who turned the fastest, in the battle for the gold. The bronze went to British Freya Anderson (53.63).
“Really very cool. After 50 meters I saw that I was next to it and I have to have it from the second part. That is so cool. I was a bit nervous, because I wanted to show it. But I was also really looking forward to it in,” she said in an initial response to the NOS.
It is Steenbergen’s second medal of this European Championship. She was previously part of the Dutch team that surprisingly won gold in the 4×200 meter freestyle.
The Frisian has rediscovered the joy of swimming after years in which she regularly thought about stopping. In November last year she already proved to be on the right track at the European Championship short course with gold in the 200 free and bronze in the 100 free.
Korstanje and Kamminga don’t make it
Earlier in the evening, in a somewhat disappointing time of 23.10, Korstanje had to acknowledge his superiority in the gold medal winner Thomas Ceccon from Italy (22.89), the Frenchman Maxime Grousset (22.97) in the final of the 50-meter butterfly. Diogo Matos Ribeiro (23.07).
Korstanje had qualified for the final on Thursday in a time of 22.88, making him, together with Grousset, the only one who dived under 23 seconds and again broke his own national record. In the series Korstanje had already converted the Dutch top time from 23.02 to 22.90.
Recently Korstanje failed to reach the final of the 50 butterfly at the World Championships long track in Budapest. He did not pass the semi-final with a time of 23.14.
Kamminga finished seventh in the 100 school final. He clocked 59.68, which put him eighteen hundredths short for a podium place. The podium is occupied by the Italians Nicolo’ Martinenghi (58.26) and Federico Poggio (58.98) and the Lithuanian Andrius Sidlauskas (59.50).
Later on Friday, the final of the 4×100 meter medley in the mixed relay will follow. Kira Toussaint, Steenbergen, Korstanje and Kamminga go for gold there.