On Saturday, Ralf Tribuntsov won the men's 50-meter backstroke semifinal at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Lublin, Poland, setting a new Estonian record with a time of 22.63 seconds. On Sunday, he delivered another outstanding performance in the final.

Tribuntsov led the race from start to finish, touching the wall in 22.68 seconds — just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Czech swimmer Miroslav Knedla. The bronze medal went to Italy's Francesco Lazzari, who finished 0.08 seconds behind.

For the 31-year-old Tribuntsov, this was the first medal of his career at a senior championship event. He also became the first Estonian male swimmer to win a European title.

Five minutes later, Eneli Jefimova entered the pool for the women's 50-meter breaststroke final. Like Tribuntsov, she led the race from the outset and finished in a championship-record time of 28.81 seconds. With that performance, Jefimova moved into a tie for second place on the all-time European rankings.

Lithuanian world record holder Ruta Meilutyte placed second with a time of 29.22, while Belgium's Florine Gaspard claimed bronze, 0.53 seconds behind Jefimova.

The win marked Jefimova's second gold medal in Lublin; she earned her first on Wednesday in the 100-meter breaststroke. Over the course of her career, Jefimova has now won seven senior championship medals, four of them gold.

Kregor Zirk also competed on Sunday in the men's 200-meter butterfly final, where he narrowly missed the podium. Switzerland's Noe Ponti took gold with a time of 1:50.17, followed by Polish twin brothers Krzysztof Chmielewski (+0.07) and Michal Chmielewski (+0.13), who claimed silver and bronze, respectively.

Zirk finished 0.38 seconds behind the winner and missed the bronze medal by just 0.25 seconds.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and X and never miss an update!