Good morning - here's where we'll post a short wrap of Day 1 heats from the European Championships, at the Centre Aquatique Olympique Métropole du Grand Paris.

The highlights of day 1 heats:

• Marrit Steenbergen (NED) sets Championship record 52.62 in the 100m freestyle - and looks like she's cruising...
• Adam Ramsay-Peaty (GBR) tops 100m breaststroke heats in 59 flat, faster than his bronze and the gold of Aussie Sam Williamson at Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth two weeks ago... the World record holder would have been closer to breaching 58sec, had it not been for his start and turn ... some old lessons to revisit on a journey far from over... Olympic champ 0.02sec ahead of Olympic 2016 and 2020ne champion Peaty at Paris 2024, Nicolo Martinenghi and Italy teammate Simone Cerasuolo 0.02sec away from peaty, 59.09 to a snap on 59.11.
• Great Britain's men, their nation's 2020ne and 2024 champions the fastest quartet ever in textile suits, men went though to the 4x200m freestyle final a touch adrift the top qualifiers for the final, Germany, the next test of the 202One and 2024 Olympic champions on the start list here in Paris... here they are:

The line-ups for the 4x200m free relays:

Men:

Women:

• Subscribers and Newsletter readers: refresh the browser link in your email to see updates.
• RESULTS IN FULL & START LISTS

Men's 400m Medley

Liam Custer, of Ireland, will forever be able to say he was the first swimmer home at the 2026 European Championships in Paris: he heat 1 in a personal best of 4:22.55 (prev. 4:23.14, April this year).

Next up, Finn Hammer, of Germany, Alberto Razzetti, of Italy, and Max Litchfield of Great Britain, swung their last strokes into the wall together, Hammer on 4:13.45, Razzetti 4:13.54, Litchfield 4:13.69. Romanian teenager Robert Badea was next home but a dolphin kick too many landed him a DQ and loss of place in the final .

In the last heat, which would normally have featured Olympic and World champion Léon Marchand, neutral Ilia Borodin clocked 4:13.10 to book a ticket to lane 4 for the final this evening, Cedric Bussing granting Germany a second lane in the showdown asx the last man through from the last heat. The context of the favourite's withdrawal:

"I'm very disappointed by all this. Also very disappointed for the people - those who came to see me for the individual medley events this week. At the same time, it’s a decision that brings me relief, because wondering whether or not to do it has really been weighing on my mind these past few weeks. It’s a bit of a mixed bag of emotions.

"I had an MRI three days ago and the injury is about 70% healed, but that’s not enough: competing would still be risky, and I don’t want to ruin the whole week. I feel slight discomfort during the butterfly stroke when I’m really pushing at 100% intensity, because I use my adductors a lot for the undulation. But it’s really just discomfort, not pain, so I think it’ll be fine."

Marchand To Manage His Injury Setback By Upping His Self-Care Game En Route To LA2028

Léon Marchand on the long-term prognosis of his injury: “I’m gonna try to do better on the ... outside thing of the pool. I would say I need to prepare better, warm up better. There’s a lot of things I can do better to not get another injury in the future.” His drive? “More records...”

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The qualifiers - for the Final:

Women's 100m freestyle 

Just one swimmer got inside 53sec in morning heats: a 52.62 from World-record holder Marrit Steenbergen looked so easy that the pool announcer took a little while to notice that the swim established a championship record. It was also 02sec faster that the Dutch ace clocked for 7th at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Since then, she's stepped up apace and in June at the Sette Colli in Rome, she ripped a 51.68 World record:

Steenbergen Shaves 0.03 Off Sjöström’s 2017 Standard For 51.68 WR In Rome 100 Free

“It’s surreal. That’s the right word. I’m incredibly proud of it, yet it still sounds strange to have the world record to my name. I am the fastest woman ever in the 100m freestyle. It still needs to sink in, but it’s absolutely true” - Marrit Steenbergen

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

In heat 4 off 6, Steenbergen's teammate Milou Van Wijk was next through to semis, on 53.00 to grab the second qualification berth among four Dutch prelims swimmers in the top 11 (under the four-per-nation/two-go-through rule). Sara Curtis, of Italy, topped heat 5 in 53.76.

What Steenbergen said on the eve of day 1 heats:

Steenbergen Out To Take “Some Kind Of Revenge” On Paris 2024

“The Olympics for me were not really what I expected of them. It’s really good to be back and to get some kind of revenge in the pool.” - Marrit Steenbergen

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The qualifiers for Semis:

Men's 50m butterfly 

If Léon was forced to skip the beat in day 1 heats, his teammate Maxime Grousset filled the void with a crowd-pleasing 22.49 blast in the last heat of the 'fly dash, just 0.01sec shy of his French record - and the championship record set by a swimmer now retired and gone off to a different world to be enhanced in ways forbidden in the tested realm.

The biggest cheer of the morning has been heard. Before Grousset, in heat 7 of 8, Swiss ace Noé Ponti flowed home in 22.69, 0.01sec inside neutral Egor Kornev's heat 6 topper ahead of Hungarian Kristof Milak and a 22.96. The sub-23 crew included Stergios Bilas, of Greece (22.93) and neutral Grigori Pekarsi (22.97), Diogo Ribeiro (POR) the World champion from intercalated Doha 2024 the first of the 23s, 0.04sec that side of the pace.

At another 'intercalated' event in 2024, the European Championships in the first season ever to also feature Olympic Games and World Championships in the same year as organisers insisted on catching up with Covid contracts, saw the 50m 'fly won in a time that would have finished 12th this morning. Consequence: It will take some nations - due to very low turnout of the biggest fish - many years before they are able to celebrate their 'best' European Championships medal haul...

The qualifiers for semis:

Women's 200m backstroke

In the first of three heats, Great Britain's Katie Shanahan left nothing to chance: 2:09.28, which would end up punching as ticket to the best of the two lane 4s in semis this evening.

Shanahan claimed Commonwealth silver for Scotland behind Australia's Jenna Forrester in Glasgow two weeks ago:

Pallister & Forrester Lead Aussie Gold Rush On Day 1 In Glasgow

Aussie gold rush on a day when Chad Le Clos broke his tie with with shooters Mike Gault, of England, and Philip Adams of Australia, to set a new standard of 19 medals by a single athlete.

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The qualifiers for Semis

Men's 100m breaststroke

Adam Ramsay Peaty swam at 58sec flat pace this morning. That's a calculated guess, of course, but his 59.08 heats topper screamed from the place of lost speed and momentum more forced than flowing: his start and turn left him lagging Kirill Prigoda by something like half a second one way and half a second back. More of less.

Whatever the true stats are, as recorded by the sports scientists to our right top in the stands this morning, it was obvious that the World record holder, though not in the zone of his staggeringly fast 56.88 World record from 2019, has a lot of speed left in him. The full package, however, is a work in renovation and renewal of skills old in need of relearning.

It's not that Ramsay-Peaty was ever the fastest of divers and turns, but in his prime, he was at least up with the edge of speed within three pulls and clicks of breaking from streamline into stroke. The power of that former momentum was key to his dominance by the close of battle.

Today, he chased Prigoda down on the swim, turned level, lost a ton and then did the same and more on the way home to winning heat 8 in 59.08. That left him 0.03sec inside the man who beat him for Olympic gold here in Paris two years ago by 0.02sec: Nicolo Martinenghi, atop heat 7 in 59.11, which his Italy teammate Simone Cerasuolo clocked behind Peaty in heat 8.

In Paris two years ago: Martinenghi 59.03, gold, Peaty, 59.05, silver.

Meanwhile, that 59.11 is faster than the 59.17 in which Australian Sam Williamson claimed gold ahead of Filip Nowacki (JER/GBR) and Ramsay-Peaty (ENG) at the Commonwealth Games:

Williamson Pips Peaty, Who’s Pipped By Nowacki - The Curse Of 59sec Strikes Again

“Fourteen months ago I wasn’t walking, I was still in a knee brace, I was on crutches, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t do anything by myself, I needed my mum to actually hold me up to have a shower. So just getting up on the blocks tonight took an immense effort” - Sam Williamson

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Heat 5, the first of the fast heats this morning, saw Jack (John) Kelly - a swimmer still registered as "USA" on the global rankings last December but now racing for Ireland, wipe half a second off his best: out in 27.39, he was home in 59.27, Nowacki, on 59.39, both comfortably through to semis. The reason why such speedy changes of nation are possible:

World Aquatics Bosses Bypass Congress To Agree Stark Changes To Sports Nationality Status

In a break with the Olympic Charter, global federation bypasses Congress to cut three-year waiting time for changing nation to just one and remove ‘sports nationality’ status from under-18s, barring the cream of world-class junior athletes

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The qualifiers for semis in Paris:

Women's 4x200m free - Men's 4x200m free

The women's 4x200 final is set, and an open book, with changes in line-ups for finals making any reading of heats a best guess. Snap in the men's, though there we can say Great Britain, which last won the continental 4x200 crown in 2018, is the team to beat, as Olympic champions at the last two Games and European record holders as the sole sub-7-min nation from Europe.

In 2018 it was Calum Jarvis (1:47.17) Duncan Scott (1:45.48) Thomas Dean (1:47.07) and James Guy (1:45.60).

In 2026 - Jarvis, the heats swimmer who shared gold at Tokyo 202one retired - Scott and Guy did not race this morning but are available for action in the final should they get the call; Dean clocked 1:45.69 in heats, and then we have the two who joined the 4x200 force since 2018: Jack McMillan, one of the Paris 2024 heats men who shared gold (and made the final for Singapore 2025 Worlds gold), on 1:45.40 this morning as fastest Brit in heats, and Matt Richards, likely to be in the line-up this evening as Britain's premier 200m podium placer in international waters since 2023.

For Germany, Lukas Märtens led the way in 1:45.84 ahead of three 1:46s for a ticket to Lane 4 for the final, GBR to their right, Lithuania to their left, with neutrals, Italy and France, with Léon Marchand primed to make his first appearance at the home Championships, all threats when their best line-ups take to the blocks this evening.

Women's 800m free

Qualifiers for the final tomorrow evening:

• Finals and semis start at 6.30pm local time.