JUNE 24 (Reuters) — Great Britain won three gold medals in a second day of success in the swimming competition at the European Games on Tuesday (June 23) in Baku.
Abbie Wood dominated the 400m individual medley with the winning time of four minutes 41.97 seconds. Italy’s Ilaria Cusinato was second and took silver 2.04 seconds behind Wood with Abja Crevar of Serbia third, trailing by 3.87 seconds.
Holly Hibbott claimed first place in the women’s 800m freestyle in eight minutes 39.02 seconds, leaving Anastasiia Kirpichnikova of Russia in second place with a silver medal and Mariana Castro Atalaya of Spain coming in third and attaining bronze.
There was also success for Cameron Kurle, Martyn Walton, Daniel Speers and Duncan Scott who combined to take gold in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on three minutes 19.38 seconds. Italy settled for second place and silver 0.81 seconds behind and Russia collected bronze 0.84 seconds adrift.
Germany’s 18-year-old Paul Hentschel, who had qualified for the final in seventh, won the 400m free in three minutes 52.43 seconds, surprising himself by leaving Dimitrios Dimitriou of Greece with the silver and Ernest Maksumov of Russia with bronze.
Russian Maria Astashkina, four-time gold medalist at the European junior championships in 2014, forged ahead over the second half of the race to win
Women’s 50m breaststroke in 31.58 seconds. Laura Kelsch of Germany was second 0.29 seconds behind to take silver and Dutch Nolween Heerve finished third to claim bronze.
In fencing, Ukraine’s Andriy Yagodka clinched the men’s individual sabre title 15-10 against favorite Tiberiu Dolniceanu of Romania.
Yagodka had earlier surprised top seed Alberto Pellegrini of Italy 15-11 in the semi-finals while Dolniceanu knocked out another Italian, Luigi Miracco, by the same score in the other final four matches as both Italians shared bronze medals.
Romanian Ana Mara Branza triumphed in the women’s epee final with a convincing 15-11 win against Yana Zvereva of Russia.
Estonia’s Erika Kirpum, who lost the semifinal to Branza, shared bronze with another Romanian Simona Gherman who was defeated by Zvereva in the other semifinal.
Courtesy og European Games Begoc.G
