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Amelie Blocksidge wins 5km gold at European Junior Championships

Amelie Blocksidge wins 5km gold at European Junior Championships

October 2, 2023

Amelie Blocksidge continued her stunning 2023 by becoming European Junior champion in the girls 5km race in Corfu, Greece.

Blocksidge swam clear of the rest of the field to win by more than a minute, finishing in a time 1:00:20.0 in the 14/15 Years race.

It added to her senior British gold in the 1500m Freestyle at the British Swimming Championships, in a year that has also see her become a European Youth Olympic Festival champion and a European Junior silver medallist in the 800m Freestyle.

It was in the early stages where the City of Salford swimmer pulled away from the rest of the group and she never looked back.

Napsugar Nagy was her closest challenger but the Hungarian swimmer ended up 1:16.10 behind Blocksidge – who swam excellently from start to finish. Spain’s Alba Rubio claimed bronze in a time of 1:01:52.10.

Speaking to LEN after the race Blocksidge said: “I was a bit surprised (at leading by such a margin), I thought I would have been in a pack, but it happened the other way.

“This gold medal means a lot, I’m really happy being in a European event and topping my age group.”

Blocksidge’ club mate Katie Lee also competed in the race and finished 21st with a time of 1:05:05.0.

Promising performances

The LEN European Junior Open Water Swimming Championships saw the most talented age-group open water swimmers compete across three categories – 5km (14–15-year-olds), 7.5km (16-17-year-olds) and 10km (18-19-year-olds).

And there were plenty of promising performances across the rest of the seven-strong British squad where Ella Dyson stood out in the Girls 10km race.

The Wycombe District swimmer finished fourth and was just 1.7 seconds off the medal positions after a thrilling five-swimmer battle for the final two spots on the podium.

Just 2.4 seconds split second to sixth place with 2023 LEN European Open Water Cup overall champion Bettina Fabian (Hungary) leading from the front to take victory.

Dyson swam strongly to finish in a time of 2:04:36.80 that was just narrowly behind silver and bronze medallists Angela Martinez (Spain) and Mira Szimcsak (Hungary).

Martinez touched the wall in 2:04:35.0 that was 0.1 ahead of Szimcsak with Dyson almost adding to her silver medal from the 2019 event in fourth.

City of Leicester’s Sean McCann was 20th in the Men’s 10km race whilst Dyson’s fellow Wycombe swimmers Lucy Fox was 23rd in the Girls 7.5km event.

You can find all the results from the LEN Junior European Open Water Championships 2023 here.

Image Credit: European Aquatics/Istvan Derencsenyi.

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