During May, junior Stina Colleou and senior Kristian Kron traveled to London, England to compete at the 2016 European Championships for Norway and Sweden, respectively.
The championships are held every two years and consist of 52 national swimming federations in Europe. This year, the Championships were held from May 9th to May 22nd at the London Aquatics Centre. The nearly two weeks of action ensured all the swimmers who participated had enough time to rest between events and different rounds.
Although several swimmers qualified for this competition, it’s difficult to accomplish. Colleou qualified in the 200-meter breaststroke well in advance at a Sectionals meet in Texas in 2015, but Kron barely made it.
“I qualified at Swim Open Stockholm in the 200-meter backstroke, which just ended on April 2nd,” Kron said. “I haven’t had much time to practice in between the qualification meet and the Championships so I am just hoping for best times.”
Colleou and Kron were allowed to participate in additional events at the Championships. In the federation of swimming, if a person gets a hard-cut in an event, they are allowed to swim two of their events that qualify for soft-cuts.
“I only went to Texas to qualify,” Stina said. “Fortunately, I went a 2:29.26, which allows me to swim the 100- and 50-meter breaststroke.”
Along with Colleou, Kron got the chance to swim two more events, which included the 400-meter freestyle and the 400-meter individual medley.
Up first to compete was Kron with the 400-meter free. During prelims, Kron finished second in his heat (37th overall) behind Poland with a 3:56.79. Later on when he competed in the 400-meter IM he placed ninth behind France with a 4:28.02, finishing 31st overall.
Colleou then competed in the 100-meter breast where she finished 10th in her heat (45th overall) behind Austria, touching in at a 1:12.49. In her 50-meter breast, Colleou managed to finish third in her heat (37th overall), finishing with a 33.59.
For their last events of the meet, events they originally qualified in, things began to go uphill for both Colleou and Kron. Colleou finished seventh in prelims behind Belgium in the 200-meter breast with a 2:30.30 and advanced to the semi-finals. There she finished seventh (14th overall) behind Italy with a personal best of 2:29.03.
Kron also advanced to the semi-finals in the 200-meter back. He finished prelims fifth behind Russia with a 2:01.01 and by the end of the semi-finals, Kron he placed eighth behind France (13th overall) with a personal best of 2:00.90.
Utah head coach Joe Dykstra is proud of the way both Colleou and Kron performed, especially considering how much time they have put into preparing.
“They have been training and racing for a very long time now without a break so it is tough to perform at your best,” Dykstra said. “However, both of them managed to go at least one personal best time and both finished in the top 14 in one event. That is a great accomplishment.”
Next up, Colleou suits up for Norwegian Nationals in the middle of July (July 17-19) and Kron will make his way to Swedish Nationals in Norrkoping (July 6-10).
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