Luxembourg swimmers Pit Brandenburger and Raphael Stacchiotti made an impressive debut at the 2018 FINA World Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China.
The 23-year-old Pit Brandenburger swam a thrilling race in the 400m freestyle and set a new personal best with 03:46.97 minutes. This saw an improvement of almost three seconds from his performance one month ago at the French Championships in Montpellier. Ranking 25th among 41 competitors, Pit similarly improved progressed four places compared to the entry list. The fastest swimmer was Lithuania's Danas Rapsys (03:36.65).
Raphael Stacchiotti also showed a solid performance in the 200m race. In 01:56.56, the 26-year-old approached his best time of 01:55.53 to about a second. In the overall ranking, the Ettelbrücker also progressed four places, ranking 22nd among 43 competitors. Chinese athlete Shun Wang competed the race in the fastest time (01:53.18).
The Luxembourg junior swimmers Lou Jominet, Laura Hric and Neele Albers similarly saw success at the International Swimming Days held from 7-9 December in Karlsruhe, Germnay.
In 04:30.73 min Lou Jominet qualified for the European Junior Championship in July 2019 in Kazan, winning gold in the 400m freestyle race. She also set new bests and won gold in theA 200m freestyle (02:10.52) and 200m medley races (02:33.24). Meanwhile, Laura Hric scored five fastest times in six starts, notably securing bronze in the 200m freestyle (02:17.37) and silver in the 400m freestyle (04:48.23) races. Last but not least, Neele Albers set new records in the 50m (36.55s) and 200m (02:49.60) butterfly races where she won the silver medal. She also secured bronze in the 100m race.
The Luxembourg team finished eighth out of 43 clubs in the overall standings.
