Head coach Eetu Karvonen’s Finnish record was saved in the semifinals by only 0.04 seconds.
Finland Olli Kokko advanced with two record improvements to the 50-meter breaststroke final at the European Championships in Rome. Kokko was tenth in the preliminaries with a time of 27.46 and eighth in the semi-finals with a time of 27.43.
Kokko took the last place in the semifinals, and he was only four hundredths of a second behind his record swim of the evening Eetu Karvonen in 2009 for the Finnish swimming record.
“It’s so great,” Kokko commented on his place in the finals on the Uimaliitto audio recording.
Kokko said that he was already in high spirits during the competitor presentation of the semi-final swimming, when the audience cheered for their Italian favourites.
“I sat behind the starting stool and listened to the roar of the crowd. I got chills and my heart was beating like crazy. It was incredibly great,” Kokko continued.
The situation was easier than the first round, when he had already improved his record once.
“I was able to take the semi-final very comfortably,” Kokko confirmed.
“The time improvement definitely came from the fact that the finish line was hit really well now. In the morning, the last bet went quite far, but in the semi-final it hit the spot.”
Perfect match finishing with one more record improvement. Kokko would like a Finnish record from the head coach of the Swimming Association.
“In the final race, it would be good to get four hundredths of the time off, so that I could give a little credit to Eetu”, Kokko planned.
At the same time, Kokko pondered how the night would go while waiting for the final competition of the European Championship.
“In the morning after the preliminaries, my heart felt like beating a little when the record came. I even fell asleep during the day when I got my stomach full of food, but I’ve never been in a situation like this before. I have to wait overnight for the next swim, and I don’t know how to sleep.
On Tuesday, he will only focus on the final race and will miss the 50m freestyle heats, which will be swum in the morning.
“At least you can sleep for a long time”, Kokko justified the cutting of the program.
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