(08-01-2019 / Euro Meet Media Services) In weniger als drei Wochen steigt die 21. Auflage des Euro Meet in Luxemburg. Täglich erreichen die Organisatoren neue Meldungen von Europas Elite-Schwimmern. Neben dem Ungarischen Duo Katinka Hosszu und Dávid Verrasztó hat heute der Deutsche Marco Koch seine Teilnahme bestätigt.
Seit 2013 ist der Deutsche Stammgast beim Euro Meet und hat seine Paradestrecke – die 200m Brust – bereits sechs Mal hintereinander gewonnen. 2015 wurde der heute 28-Jährige Weltmeister in Kazan (Langbahn) und 2016 in Windsor auf der Kurzbahn. Aktuell hält er in 2:00,44 den Kurzbahn-Weltrekord und gewann vor Monatsfrist die Bronzemedaille bei der Weltmeisterschaft in Hangzhou.
Nach einem Vereins- und Trainerwechsel von Darmstadt nach Frankfurt im vergangenen Jahr beginnt für Marco mit dem Start beim Euro Meet die Vorbereitung auf die Qualifikation zur Weltmeisterschaft im Sommer in Gwangju. Marco hat beste Erinnerungen an das schnelle Becken der Coque: im Jahr 2016 schwamm er in 2:07.69 Meet-Rekord und die zweitschnellste Zeit seiner Karriere (nur bei seinem EM-Triumpf 2014 in Berlin war er in 2:07.47 schneller).
Medley swimmer Dávid Verrasztó on board
With the European Champion – Dávid Verrasztó – the next high-level-swimmer from Hungary confirmed his participation at the Euro Meet from 25 to 27 January at d’Coque.
On the European stage, the 30-year-old managed the title hat-trick: at the European Championships in 2014 in Berlin, 2016 in London and 2018 in Glasgow, the Hungarian won the 400 meter medley.
In front of his home crowd at the last World Championships in 2017 in Budapest, he only was defeated by the US American Chase Kalisz and won silver. Two years earlier at the World Championships in Kazan, the Japanese Daiya Seto won the gold medal and David finished second.
The Iron Lady is back
The organizers of the Euro Meet can announce the first highlight in the 2019 line up – Katinka Hosszu will compete at the 21st Euro Meet.
After a break 2018 the Hungarian top swimmer known as Iron Lady has decided to start her preparation for the World Championship in Luxembourg. Katinka is well known to the Luxembourg swimming family: at Euro Meet 2013 she dared an experiment and swam over all 15 individual distances into the final and could win eleven of them. During this time, the 29-year-old coined her nickname “Iron Lady”.
Meanwhile, the level of the Euro Meet is so high among women that she probably wouldn’t be able to do such a coup anymore. For the 21st edition at the end of January 2019, the Hungarian will probably concentrate on her main events. After all, she is Olympic champion over 100m back, 200 and 400m medley and reigning world champion (200, 400 medley). With the second place in the overall World Cup ranking, Katinka was already in top form again this season. Only the Swedish sprint queen Sarah Sjöstöm had to bow to the Iron Lady – but who knows, maybe the two will meet in the competition pool of the Coque…
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