Swimming | Veera Kivirinta was the fastest in the preliminaries and Ida Hulkko was fourth – the land quota took Finland away from one place in the semi-finals

Finland Veera Kivirinta won the women’s 50-meter breaststroke with the fastest time in the preliminaries at the European Long Course Championships in Belgrade. Kivirinta got a time of 30.58.

Also Ida Hulkko and Kia Metsäkonkola were well on their way. Hulkko was fourth in the heats with a time of 31.20 and Metsäkonkola was eighth with a time of 31.46.

Kivirinta and Hulkko advanced to the swimming semifinals later today, but Metsäkonkola qualified because of the land quota. Also Anniina Murto qualified. He was 20th in the heats with a time of 32.25.

“Swimming was really good. At the start, however, it looked like everything: the hands crossed and opened, the slide had a small panic button at the bottom and the surface did not hit well. From what I saw on the video, I didn’t miss the front, even though I messed up like that”, Kivirinta said Uimaliito with a recording.

“In the evening, I hope for a clean swim. Swimming is quite stable. There’s nothing to do but rest on the plane and again in the evening,” he continued.

Also Laura Lahtinen and Aliisa Soini see you in the evening in the semi-finals. Lahtinen was ninth in the preliminaries of the women’s 200 meter butterfly with a time of 2:13.70. Soin’s time of 2:16.10 was enough for 15th place.

In the men’s 50-meter freestyle Kalle Mäkinen (22.54) and Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (22.85) did not make it to the next round. Mäkinen was 30th and Liukkonen 43rd in the heats.

Men’s 200m individual medley Ronny Brännkärr swam a time of 2:04.54 and qualified for the continuation after being 23rd in the heats.