Semis Wrap: Steenbergen Sets Her Second Champs Mark Of The Day: 52.44
Da1 1 Semis, Paris 2026: Marrit Steembergen (50 free) and Igor Kornev (50 'fly) set championships records in semis; Katie Shanahan into lane 4 for the 200 back final - and Nicolo Martinenghi leads the way to the 00 breast final
There were championship records in the women's 200m freestyle (heats and semis) and the men's 50m butterfly, while Adam Ramsay-Peaty had this to say about his first sub-59sec swim since spring 2024 at Olympic trials:
"Yeah, I mean, I don't even know what number that would have been, that 59 this morning. Surely into the 70s soon in my career [its more than 120 times between 59 and the minute]. I mean, 58 is still quite a hard time to do, you know. So to do that at 31 years old, and then hopefully tomorrow - I think a bit non-negotiable with me is just to improve that process. And if I can do that process, that'll give me a better time. Better time gives me a better position. So the rest is out of my control."
Day 1 Finals - Double Relay Gold For Great Britain:
Craig Lord
Craig Lord
In other action:
Craig Lord
Women's 100m freestyle semi-final
Marrit Steenbergen set her second Championship record of the day in 52.44, after 52.62 in heats, in the 100m freestyle. Out in 25.06, a slither adrift her global-standard pace, the Dutch ace raced home in a class on her own but not in the same hurry as she did in Rome back in June.
Steenbergen cracked the World record in 51.68 in Rome at the Sette Colli International, and on the eve of Europeans here in Paris noted that the championship environment might leave her shy of that festival of speed this week.
She enters the final with a half-second advantage of Italy''s US-based Sara Curtis, on 52.93 as the only other sub-53 in the semis:
Men's 50m butterfly semi-final
Noè Ponti, of Switzerland, got the first evening party started with a 22.53 blast. In the second semi, after a 22.49 in heats just 0.01sec shy of the French and Championship record, Maxine Grousset matched his early speed precisely, but it wasn't good enough to match Igor Kornev, who smashed the Championship record with a 22.36.
Noè Ponti flies down the Paris pool on his way to the 50 butterfly final - photos by Patrick B. Kraemer
The record had stood to Ukraine's Andrei Govorov, retired but still the world-record holder in 22.27. World Aquatics was told by European Aquatics that it could not follow a relaxation of the rule on Kornev's country for Paris 2026, so that controversial and highly politicised process of allowing Russia back in without political neutrality checks and able to have its flag and colours back on the blocks in the pool, has been delayed until September. Meanwhile...
The Qualifiers:
Qualifiers in other semis, with fuller reports to follow non separate files.
Women's 200m backstroke
Britain's Katie Shanahan contributed to Britain splendid first day in Paris, her 2:07.61 ticket to lane 4 for the showdown tomorrow just shy of her Scottish record.
Men 's 100m breaststroke
Nicolò Martinenghi, 2024 Olympic champion for Italy, was the man who reached deepest down into the 58sec mark after seasons when a 59-sec curse has at timer seemed to have struck the brotherhood of breaststroke in the years since Adam Peaty cracked 58, in 2015, then 57, in 2019.
Ramsay-Peaty, 2016 and 2020ne Olympic champion and World record holder, swam faster - not once but twice - than all podium placers in the event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow two weeks ago. This morning it was 59.09, this evening 58.97, while his GBR teammate Filip Nowicki, Commonwealth 200m champion in Glasgow and silver medallist ahead of his APRace mentor in the 100m, set yet another personal best, of 59.03. Those two efforts from the Brits topped semi No 1.
In semi No2, Martinenghi clocked 58.67. He was chased down by Jack Kelly, an American who has selected Ireland for his sporting nationality in the past year. Kelly cut a chunk off his best today in two rounds: 59.7 down to 59.2 this morning - and then down further to 58.90 this evening. He tried to keep on terms with the Italian but in the closing 15m, Martinenghi flowed all the way home, no sign of breakdown in his stroke, where at the heart of Kelly's fine form and progress was a hint of his being stretched a little thin.
Ramsay Peaty looked like that in Glasgow - but not nearly as much here in Paris.
Bigger than the time on the clock was the manner in which he raced the heats and semi. Of course, this was not Project 56 Man but the genesis of true hope was tangible in the way he came back at his rivals in the closing 10 metres of racing, rather that get overhauled as his stroke broke down in Glasgow.
Strip his two swims, heats in the morning, semi last night, of its lacklustre start and turn and Ramsay-Peaty was the fastest swimmer in the pool. Add the brakes at take off, from the walls at both end of the pool both walls and we see a man frustratingly shy of where he has the potential to get back down to on the clock.
Distraught in Glasgow, but calm and smiling this evening, he said:
"That was a really good, really good start to these championships. We're gonna have to obviously find something in that back end tomorrow, but yeah, I think the back end's come miles ahead of where it was a week ago, so who knows what the 24 hours is going to make."
I mention the starts and turns. He says:
"Yes, and that's always been the issue around my whole career, right? Yeah, I'd rather put the time in the work in the stroke, but obviously now, yeah, I do need to obviously be a bit smarter around these walls and starts. But that's sport, eh? "
The sub-59, a good feeling?
"Yeah, I mean, I don't even know what number that would have been, that 59 this morning. Surely into the 70s soon in my career [its more than 120 times between 59 and the minute]. I mean, 58 is still quite a hard time to do, you know. So to do that at 31 years old, and then hopefully tomorrow - I think a bit non-negotiable with me is just to improve that process. And if I can do that process, that'll give me a better time. Better time gives me a better position. So the rest is out of my control."
So, what did he think had happened to that dam of folk who had their eye on a sub 59, then a sub 58 and also dreamt of a sub-57, now that seasons have grown long on 59s, what with him having just clocked his 65th 59 or under?
Has the standard he set been reset backwards by the breaststroke crew, or what's going on?
"I'm not sure. I don't know. I do think about that sometimes, but I guess it's just natural progression, right? And I think you've got to have a certain genetic ability, environmental ability, but also you've got to be hungry for it, but be there at the right time with the right people around you. So maybe that'll take a few more years. Who knows? It might even be sooner than we think. I don't know. "
The qualifiers:
