Right after the FINA Swimming World Cup, Kazan hosted the most important start of Europe this short course season which brought together more than 400 of the strongest swimmers of the Europe from 40 countries.

In the conditions of a pandemic, such a start was really difficult, it took place without spectators, but the experienced local organizing committee from Kazan once again proved that it is capable of holding aquatics events at the highest level.

The participation of the strongest swimmers in Europe, as well as a large number of participants in the "Aquatics Palace" is proof of this.

The championship was remembered for a large number of new world records, great victories and at the same time unexpected results.

The Russian national team won the most gold medals at the European Championship in Kazan – 11. The total number of awards was not equal to the Italian team – 35. The Netherlands team has 8 gold awards and 18 in total.

At this LEN European Championship, our FINA Development Center team was represented by three swimmers who are graduates of the program, who completed it in 2021.

1) Ado Gargovic (Montenegro)
2) Arina Baikova (Latvia)
3) Bernat Lomero Arenas (Andorra)

Of course, they faced the tasks of a decent performance, improving their own best results, as well as qualifying for the upcoming FINA World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

1 day (02.11.2021)

Arina Baikova (Latvia) - 50 m freestyle
26.02

Ado Gargovic (Montenegro) - 50 m backstroke
26.54 new personal best

Day 2 (03.11.2021)

Bernat Lomero (Andorra) - 50 m freestyle
22.67 new national record

Arina Baikova (Latvia) - 200 m backstroke
2:12.05 new personal vest, as well as reaching the semifinals of the European Championship.

Day 3 (04.11.2021)

Arina Baikova (Latvia) - 100 m freestyle
56.98

50 m backstroke
29.23

Day 4 (05.11.2021)

Arina Baikova (Latvia) - 100 m backstroke
1:01.55

Ado Gargovic (Montenegro) - 200 m freestyle
DSQ for an incorrect start, but in the end swam in the best time of Montenegro.

Bernat Lomero (Andorra) - 50 m fly
24.12 new personal best

Day 5 (06.11.2021)

Ado Gargovic (Montenegro) - 100 m freestyle
52.14 new personal best

Bernat Lomero (Andorra) - 100 m freestyle
50.79 new national record

According to the results of these competitive days, the graduates showed quite serious results.

- 2 new individual national records of Andorra from Bernat Lomero.
- 1 participation in the semi-finals of the European Championship
- 4 new best personal results from three athletes.

But the most significant fact of this autumn is the performance of Arina Baikova, who stayed to train in Kazan even after the completion of the program and participated in two events in a row (SWC and EURO), fulfilled 3 "B" standards, participated in the Final stages and regularly improved her personal records.

And the most outstanding thing is that Arina swam 16 times in two weeks, and at the end of the European Championship it was very difficult for her to improve her results, but she coped.

A graduate of the scholarship program from Latvia left her comment on the results of the European Championship in Kazan:

"The European Championship pleasantly surprised me that after the FINA SWC she was able to show fast seconds at several distances, but I am especially glad to get into the semifinals of the 200m backstroke.

Yes, it was very hard, but at some point I got a second wind. I was very encouraged by the fact that you are competing with the strongest swimmers in Europe.

Of course, I wanted better results, but there were mistakes that did not allow me to fully implement it.

We know with the coaching staff what to work on and what to fix before the World Cup in Abu Dhabi. I really hope to go there."