Credit: Luxembourg Swimming Federation (FLNS)
The first day of the European Short Course Championships in Glasgow saw the Luxembourg team set two new national records.
Dudelange swimmer Julien Henx was the first Luxembourger to compete on this occasion. In the third race of the first competition over the 100m butterfly, the 24-year-old reached ninth place with a time of 53.40 seconds, narrowly missing his best time of 52.86 seconds, set at the 2017 French Championships. His final rank was 49th out of 61 competitors.
Julien Henx commented: "For me, the 100 metres were good as an entry into the championships, it was my second fastest time and now I am concentrating on the 50 metre freestyle and butterfly".
Differdange swimmer Pit Brandenburger similarly missed his best time over the 400m freestyle, which he finished in 03:51.97 minutes (best time: 03:46.97, set at 2018 FINA World Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China).
Meanwhile, European rookie Rémi Fabiani's first race at an elite European Championship got off to a promising start. Halfway through the 200m backstroke, he turned around one second faster (56.27 seconds) than his record race at the national championships two weeks ago. In the second half of the race, the 18-year-old kept up the tempo, but finished in 01:57.35 minutes, his second best time. Less than ten minutes later, Rémi Fabiani competed in his second European Championship start.
At the end of the heats of the first day of the competition, the Luxembourg men's 4x50m freestyle relay set a new national record. The quartet composed of Julien Henx, Rémi Fabiani, Raphaël Stacchiotti and Max Mannes set a new record of 01:28.84 minute. The race saw sprinter Julien Henx (in 21.78 seconds) help the quartet set a new national record in motion. Rémi Fabiani (22.93), Raphaël Stacchiotti (22.00) and Max Mannes (22.13) followed suit and placed the Luxembourg quartet in 15th place.
