The heavyweights of the ice swimming world competed in Oradea, Romania at the IISA 1st European Championship but 19-year-old Andrei Enache, a Romanian favorite, who swam away with the 250m freestyle title in 2:35.94, setting a world record in the process.
Behind him were a slew of big-time cold water swimmers including 23-year-old Marcin Szarpak in 2:39.97, 37-year-old Andreas Waschburger in 2:41.90, 21-year-old Michal Tomaszowski in 2:45.41, 25 km marathon swimming champion Axel Reymond in 2:56.27, 50-year-old Henri Kaarma in 3:03.58, and 49-year-old James Leitch in 3:04.36.
Szarpak’s previous world record was 2:36.99, set at the 5th World Championship in Samoens in January 2023.
250m Freestyle Results
- Andrei Enache (19) 2:35.94
- Marcin Szarpak (23) 2:39.97
- Andreas Waschburger (37) 2:41.90
- Michal Tomaszowski (21) 2:45.41
- Emil Lyubenov (36) 2:55.81
- Axel Reymond (30) 2:56.27
- Phillip Duma (43) 2:56.73
- Virgile Poirier (24) 2:59.71
- Vincent Leblond (38) 3:01.48
- Henri Kaarma (50) 3:03.58
- James Leitch (49) 3:04.36
- Rostislav Vítek (48) 3:04.71
- Marek Rother (56) 3:07.01
- Ori Sela (51) 3:07.17
- Nikolaj Kuhn (31) 3:07.57
- Christof Wandratsch (58) 3:08.11
- Max Munson (55) 3:08.45
- Alex Rossi (48) 3:08.46
- Hubert Wypych (18) 3:09.78
- Ileana Dan (42) 3:10.64
- Marco Nardo (34) 3:12.82
- Henry Lykke Stokholm (55) 3:13.86
- Simon Zdarsky (31) 3:16.33
- Peter Plavec (37) 3:16.35
- Andrzej Kowalczyk (33) 3:16.55
- Raymond Oosterbaan (47) 3:16.84
- Viktor Dluhos (30) 3:17.80
- Stefan Runge (57) 3:19.35
- Luca Valeriani (52) 3:21.87
- Libor Stedron (58) 3:22.21
- Christophe Remy (52) 3:25.63
- Alexander Schilder (33) 3:26.19
- Marc Thievent (44) 3:26.81
- Valentin Mitrev (61) 3:27.15
- Graeme Abrahams (38) 3:28.52
- Brian Bain (64) 3:29.45
- Jan Girkinger (18) 3:31.34
- Mattia Dellabiancia (34) 3:32.55
- Fenwick Ridley (39) 3:33.94
- Przemyslaw Konieczniak (29) 3:37.09
- Robillot François (54) 3:39.48
- James Bridges (67) 3:40.01
- Borys Kania (24) 3:40.04
- Federico Miot (47) 3:40.44
- Jacques Tuset (61) 3:42.27
- Jonas Mikkelsen (49) 3:43.34
- Jordan Lavialle (22) 3:43.86
- Kevin Audouy (28) 3:46.29
- Mark Thies (55) 3:46.71
- Valentin Cinciulescu (48) 3:50.34
- Dezider Pék (51) 3:51.11
- Matyas Kavan (51) 3:51.96
- Mateusz Kdzior (51) 3:53.18
- Paul White (60) 3:57.91
- Shai Braitner (47) 3:58.49
- Wojciech Golonka (46) 3:59.40
- Brian Swift (55) 3:59.75
- Piotr Rapacki (46) 3:59.82
- Charalampos Theodosis (48) 4:00.02
- Jean Delecluse (31) 4:03.86
- Michal Bartal (40) 4:08.22
- Christian Carlie (50) 4:11.89
- David Briand (48) 4:14.45
- Alexander Tser (39) 4:16.41
- Frank Hallissey (43) 4:18.51
- Alan Gleeson (57) 4:21.41
- Zeteny Horvath (18) 4:24.58
- Simone Olivi (57) 4:25.61
- Marcin Haesthikke (46) 4:27.18
- Michael Tsentseris (47) 4:32.11
- Martin Shannon (52) 4:33.23
- Francois Xavier Surinx (27) 4:33.72
- Brian Dillon (55) 4:33.77
- William van Overveld (60) 4:36.64
- Christoph Sivich (48) 4:37.05
- Theo van der Meer (59) 4:38.17
- Alexandre Fuzeau (58) 4:38.84
- Robert Vasiliu (51) 4:39.63
- Thomas Stangl (53) 4:43.39
- Tibor Galffy (55) 4:48.21
- Marc Boutin (64) 4:48.35
- Zsolt Horvath (55) 4:49.12
- Ger Purcell (69) 4:49.74
- Viliam Demcak (43) 4:52.85
- Vittorio Zanoni (68)4:54.26
- Maxime Valabregue (57) 5:24.06
- Geraud Paillot de Montabert (54) 5:48.97
- Bartlomiej Nagalewski (48) 6:45.12
- Albert Dulac (79) 7:32.90
The Championships concluded with 320 swimmers from 27 countries from Albania, Cyprus, Great Britain, Lithuania, Portugal, Turkey, Andorra. Czech Republic. Greece, Luxembourg, Romania, Ukraine, Armenia, Denmark, Hungary, Malta, Russia, Austria, Estonia, Iceland, Moldova, San Marino, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Ireland, Monaco, Serbia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Montenegro, Slovakia, Belgium, France, Italy, Isle of Man, Netherlands, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, Croatia, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Poland, and Switzerland participating.
The water temperature ranged from 3.9°C to 4.4°C throughout the events that were streamed live on the IISA YouTube TV channel (watch here).
For more information, visit here.
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