Kocaeli 2026 Day 3: More gold for Barlaam and Kratochvil

Two of Para swimming’s biggest stars, Laureus World Sports Awards nominees David Kratochvil of Czechia and Simone Barlaam of Italy, added more gold to their collection on Wednesday, day three of the World Para Swimming European Championships Kocaeli 2026 in Turkiye.

Kratochvil and Barlaam were shortlisted among six Para athletes for the prestigious award, held in Madrid last April, following their impressive performances at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. One year on, their strong form continues, with the Czech securing his third gold medal in as many events while the Italian claimed his second win in Kocaeli.

“I’ve enjoyed every metre, it felt nice as the crowd today was crazy. There were many Turkish athletes swimming before me and the atmosphere was crazy, it almost felt like being in a stadium,” Barlaam said after his win in the men’s 100m butterfly S9 (58.20). 

“I went little quicker than I expected while I was swimming and I’m really happy for the way it went.” 

Kratochvil won the men’s 400m freestyle S11, the opening event of the evening at the Gebze Olympic Swimming Pool, clocking 4:20.42.

“I enjoyed a lot being at the Laureus. I was there with other two swimmers, [Simone] Barlaam and Gabriel [Araujo] from Brazil, so it was amazing. Everything is looking great this season, and I’m just looking forward to the next races,” said the Czech, who still has three more individual races at the Euros.

Turkish fans went wild, as Barlaam mentioned, during the women’s 50m butterfly S5 with a repeat of the one-two finish of the previous day in the 50m backstroke: gold for Sevilay Ozturk and silver for Esra Yuce, who had a special group of young fans in the stands supporting her. 

Turkiye has five gold medals at Kocaeli 2026 so far, one more than the nation had won across all previous European Championships combined. 

Germany’s Tanja Scholtz broke two SM3 world records en route to gold in the women’s 150m individual medley SM4. She clocked 2:40.45 in the final, lowering the mark she set in the morning heats by more than three seconds. 

It was Scholtz’s second gold in Turkiye and her third world record of the championships.

Two nations completed clean podium sweeps on Wednesday. First came Hungary in the women's 400m freestyle S10, with Bianka Pap taking gold ahead of Csenge Hotz and Virag Csenge Janza. Later, Great Britain repeated the feat in the women's 100m breaststroke SB14 through Aaliyah Richards, Olivia Newman-Baronius and Tara Beard.

The triple podium was Hungary’s second gold at Kocaeli 2026, coming just two races after Zsofia Konkoly’s victory in the women's 100m Butterfly S9.

Russia claimed seven wins on day three. Ukraine took three gold medals, while Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands earned two each. Czechia, France, Spain and Turkiye were the other nations to reach the top the podium. 

You can watch all the Kocaeli 2026 action live here!

Kocaeli 2026 – Day Three medallists

Men’s 400m freestyle S11
Gold: David Kratochvil (Czechia)
Silver: Marco Meneses (Portugal)
Bronze: Alex Kozlowski (Poland)

Men's 100m Freestyle S3
 Gold: Dimitri Granjux (France)
 Silver: Denys Ostapchenko (Ukraine)
 Bronze: Josia Tim Alexander Topf (Germany)

Women's 100m Freestyle S3
 Gold: Delia Fontcuberta Cervera (Spain)
 Silver: Teresa Perales (Spain)
 Bronze: Domiziana Mecenate (Italy)

Men's 100m Breaststroke SB7
 Gold: Kyrylo Poida (Ukraine)
 Silver: Turgut Aslan Yaraman (Turkiye)
 Silver: Egor Efrosinin (Russia)

Women's 100m Breaststroke SB7
 Gold: Mariia Pavlova (Russia)
 Silver: Letizia Milesi (Italy)
 Bronze: Nahia Zudaire Borrezo (Spain)

Men's 100m Freestyle S13
 Gold: Egor Shchitkovskii (Russia)
 Silver: Oleksii Virchenko (Ukraine)
 Bronze: Enrique Alhambra Mollar (Spain)

Women's 100m Freestyle S13
 Gold: Carlotta Gilli (Italy)
 Silver: Roisin Ni Riain (Ireland)
 Bronze: Emma Feliu Martin (Spain)

Women's 150m Individual Medley SM4
 Gold: Tanja Scholz (Germany)
 Silver: Mira Larionova (Russia)
 Bronze: Gina Boettcher (Germany)

Men's 50m Freestyle S12
 Gold: Vladimir Sotnikov (Russia)
 Silver: Maksym Veraksa (Ukraine)
 Bronze: Illia Yaremenko (Ukraine)

Women’s 50m Freestyle S12
Gold: Anna Krivshina (Russia)
Silver: Elena Semechin (Germany)
Bronze: Mariia Latriskaia (Russia)

Men's 50m Butterfly S5
 Gold: Artem Oliinyk (Ukraine)
 Silver: Ismail Zulfic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
 Bronze: Kirill Pulver (Russia)

Women's 50m Butterfly S5
 Gold: Sevilay Ozturk (Turkiye)
 Silver: Esra Yuce (Turkiye)
 Bronze: Galina Fedurina (Russia)

Men's 200m Individual Medley SM6
 Gold: Andrei Granichka (Russia)
 Silver: Vladyslav Koshman (Ukraine)
 Bronze: David Sanchez Sierra (Spain)

Women's 200m Individual Medley SM6
 Gold: Verena Schott (Germany)
 Silver: Dearbhaile Brady (Ireland)
 Bronze: Aitana Estrada Chavez (Spain)

Men's 100m Butterfly S9
 Gold: Simone Barlaam (Italy)
 Silver: Jacobo Garrido Brun (Spain)
 Bronze: Hector Denayer (France)

Women's 100m Butterfly S9
 Gold: Zsofia Konkoly (Hungary)
 Silver: Florianne Bultje (Netherlands)
 Bronze: Oliwia Jablonska (Poland)

Men's 400m Freestyle S10
 Gold: Bas Takken (Netherlands)
 Silver: Alan Ogorzalek (Poland)
 Bronze: Balint Koeszegvary (Germany)

Women's 400m Freestyle S10
 Gold: Bianka Pap (Hungary)
 Silver: Csenge Hotz (Hungary)
 Bronze: Virag Csenge Janza (Hungary)

Men's 100m Breaststroke SB11
 Gold: Rogier Dorsman (Netherlands)
 Silver: Danylo Chufarov (Ukraine)
 Bronze: Edgaras Matakas (Lithuania)

Men's 100m Breaststroke SB14
 Gold: Quinn-Austin Kelly (Great Britain)
 Silver: Florian Reiter (Germany)
 Bronze: Vasyl Krainyk (Ukraine)

Women's 100m Breaststroke SB14
 Gold: Aaliyah Richards (Great Britain)
 Silver: Olivia Newman-Baronius (Great Britain)
 Bronze: Tara Beard (Great Britain)

Men's 100m Butterfly S8
 Gold: Eduard Horodianyn (Ukraine)
 Silver: Alberto Amodeo (Italy)
 Bronze: Diogo Cancela (Portugal)

Women's 100m Butterfly S8
 Gold: Viktoriia Ishchiulova (Russia)
 Silver: Nahia Zudaire Borrezo (Spain)
 Bronze: Alzbeta Kubova (Slovakia)

Mixed 4×50m Medley 20pts
 Gold: Russia (Roman Zhdanov, Kirill Aleksandrov, Milana Shchelokova, Mira Larionova)
 Silver: Italy (Luca da Prato, Monica Boggioni, Giulia Terzi, Francesco Bocciardo)
 Bronze: Ukraine (Yaroslav Semenenko, Maryna Verbova, Veronika Korzhova, Artem Oliinyk)