Madeira 2024: Thirteen-year-olds Barlov, Winnifrith steal the show on day one

Two 13-year-olds stole the show on the first day of the 2024 Para Swimming European Open Championships in Madeira, Portugal, on Sunday (22 April), as Italy started the competition in a dominant fashion.

Rising star Ismail Barlov, 13, from Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed the gold medal in the men's 50m breaststroke SB2 final, at 1:01.15, beating runner-up Emmanuele Marigliano from Italy by 4.56 seconds. Australia's Grant Patterson finished third in 1:06.58, 12 hundreds of a second ahead of Greek veteran Ioannis Kostakis. 

“I feel great, I didn’t expect that [the victory]. I do my best and I’m very proud of myself,” Barlov said. “I want to give this title to my family and friends, and also to my coach and my country.”

The other 13-year-old debutant to get a golden start to Madeira 2024 was Iona Winnifrith from Great Britain, who took the women's 200m individual medley SM7 title. Ukraine's Veronika Korzhova had been in the lead halfway through the race when the teenage talent had pushed past her with a powerful breaststroke. The last 50 metres, Korzhova caught up on the young Brit with every stroke but Winnifrith had a strong finish and could seal the victory in her maiden international final at 3:09.76, 0.48 of a second ahead of the Ukrainian silver medallist. 

“I wasn’t expecting to be European champion today, my main event is the breaststroke. I’m really happy and now I will try to win another medal in my first Europeans,“ Winnifrith said. 

Brazil's Pamella Cristina Cruz de Andrade finished third in 3:18.70.

Strong Italian start

Italy made a strong start to their Madeira 2024 campaign, winning seven of the 26 gold medals at stake in the first day of competitions, as well as five silver medals and two bronze.

Alberto Omodeo kick-started the Italian medal haul in the men's 400m freestyle S8 final, where neutral athlete Andrei Nikolaev had taken an early lead. The 23-year-old Italian edged past his opponent and pulled away with a strong finish to claim the gold medal in 4:24.29 – a faster time than when he became world champion last year.

His teammate Xenia Francesca Palazzo led the women's 400m freestyle S8 final and finished comfortably inside of the five-minute mark, more than 11 seconds clear of runner-up Nahia Zudiare Borrezo from Spain.

Three-time world champion Stefano Raimondi, whose high stroke rate has dominated the men's 100m breaststroke SB9 in recent years, took his third European title in the event on Sunday, claiming a silver behind Ukraine's Ihor Nimchenko in the 50m freestyle S10 final. 

Carlotta Gilli led the women's 100m butterfly S13 final from start to finish and Monica Boggioni crushed the opponents in the women's 50m breaststroke SB3 final to retain her title with her fastest time of the year. Boggioni was 0.73 of a second from winning gold in the women's 50m freestyle S5 too, but Ukraine's Iryna Poida was too strong and the Italian had to settle for a second place. 

World champion Giulia Ghiretti was pushed hard by Hungary's Fanny Illes in the women's 100m breaststroke SB4 final. However, as Ghiretti made the last push, Illes could not respond and the 30-year-old Italian won the gold medal inside of one minute and 50 seconds, much thanks to the hard competition from Paralympic champion Illes. Neutral athlete Natalia Pavliukova finished third 16.48 seconds behind the winner.

Double world champion and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic gold medallist Alessia Scortechini finished off the first of seven days of Para swimming action in Madeira the way it started; with Italy on top, as she won the women's 50m freestyle S10 final with a strong finish under the 28-second mark. Neutral athlete Elizaveta Sidorenko clinched the silver as Emeline Pierre from France took the bronze.

Dutch gold

The women's 100m breaststroke SB9 became a Dutch affair as Chantalle Zijderveld marked a decade of winning international titles by claiming her fourth European gold medal before runner-up Lisa Kruger, also from the Netherlands. Tatyana Lebrun from Belgium finished third.

Their countryman Rogier Dorsman touched the wall first in the men's 50m freestyle S11 final, beating Czech silver medallist David Kratochvil by half a second to add a European title to his collection of a dozen of gold medals from Paralympic Games and world championships.

Germany got their first gold medal of the championships in the women's 100m backstroke S6 final. Where Verena Schott, who had won the title in 2018 but had to settle for a silver in 2021, smiled in the water as she had made it back to the top of the podium.

In a strong day for Ukraine, world record holder Andrii Trusov won the men's 200m individual medley SM7 final as six-time Paralympic champion Yevhenii Bohodaiko finished third. Christian Sadie from South Africa was the runner-up in a new African Record (2:35.33) finishing 3.10 after the winner.

Another non-European record tumbled in the women's 50m freestyle S11 final, which Karolina Pelendritou from Cyprus won before runner-up Lisette Bruinsma from the Netherlands. In third place, Anastasia Pagonis from USA set a new American record with 30.63 – 0.91 second behind the winner.

Neutral athlete Aleksei Ganiuk smashed the 20-year-old European Record on his way to the men's 100m backstroke S6 gold medal. Finishing in 1:13.47, the 24-year-old cut 0.52 second of the previous record set in September 2004 as the pre-race favourite, two-time world champion Dino Sinovcic from Croatia, had to settle for a second place in 1:16.82. Thijs van Hofweegen from the Netherlands claimed bronze.

Neutral athlete Ihar Boki won the men's 100m butterfly S13 gold medal, Oleksandr Komarov from Ukraine made a strong performance to claim gold in the men's 50m freestyle S5 as Great Britain's William Ellard made sure ”God save the king” was played more than once on Sunday, leading the men's 200m freestyle S14 final from start to finish, for large parts of the race at world-record pace, to take the victory before Ukraine's silver medallist Dmytro Vanzenko.

Debutant Olivia Lily Newman-Baronius from Great Britain was also close to a victory but had to settle for a second place in the women's 200m freestyle S14, finishing 0.3 second after the gold medallist, neutral athlete Valeriia Shabalina.

Neutral athlete Diana Koltsova won the women's 50m breaststroke before runner-up Veronika Guirenko from Israel and Germany's six-time world champion Tania Scholz, who took the bronze.

Complete schedule, live results and all medallists of the Madeira 2024 Para Swimming European Championships can be found here.