Top Swimmers Compete at National Championships Ahead of International Events

From Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 July 2025, the Luxembourg Swimming and Lifesaving Federation (FLNS) organised the Open Luxembourg Nationals and Masters Nationals at the Coque Aquatic Centre in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.

According to FLNS National Technical Director and Federal Coach, Christophe Audot, the event brought together swimmers across various age categories, from young national debutants to experienced athletes. “We have some children, girls born in 2013 and boys born in 2012, competing in their first national championships,” he explained to Chronicle.lu. “At the same time, you have everybody. For most, it’s the last competition of the season, but for a few international swimmers, it’s more of a training event to prepare for the final competition.”

One of the international swimmers, 20-year-old Finn Kemp, is set to compete at the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games, taking place in Germany from Wednesday 16 to Sunday 27 July 2025. The swimming events will be held at the Europe SportPark Aquatics Centre in Berlin.

Two fourteen-year-old swimmers, Dana Resl and Emma Barthel, will take part in the 18th edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival, scheduled to take place from Sunday 20 to Saturday 26 July 2025 in Skopje, North Macedonia.

The most important event for members of Luxembourg’s national team this summer will be the World Championships in Singapore, for which four swimmers - Rémi Fabiani, Ralph Daleiden, Joao Carneiro and Julien Henx - have qualified. The team is set to leave Luxembourg on Tuesday 15 July 2025 for a ten-day pre-camp in Jakarta, Indonesia, to finalise preparations ahead of the championships. The event forms part of the World Aquatics Championships, with the swimming competitions scheduled to take place from Sunday 27 July to Sunday 3 August 2025.

Federal Coach Christophe Audot described the National Championships as a valuable training opportunity for elite swimmers: “They compete. So it was a work competition with many, many races. Not every time the main race. They try to build something on the side to have fun, to swim butterfly, backstroke. Not main style necessarily. And also, for example, Ralph Daleiden yesterday [on Saturday 12 July 2025] did a 400 freestyle. It was the first, since five years I think, that it's just for fun.”

In that 400m freestyle race, Daleiden clocked 3:58.51 and finished second, missing the win by just 0.47 seconds. He also excelled in his main events, winning the 50m freestyle in 23.06 and going on to claim the 100m freestyle title in 50.28. Rémi Fabiani placed second in the 100m freestyle (51.48), secured victory in the 50m backstroke (26.47), and finished third in the 100m butterfly (55.52), just behind Joao Carneiro (55.49) and Florian Frippiat, who won the event in 54.15.

Julien Henx, whose programme included just one race over the two-day competition, triumphed in the 50m butterfly with a time of 24.36 seconds.

Finn Kemp, showing strong form following a challenging season, took second place in the 50m breaststroke (29.04) behind Carneiro (28.60), before going on to win the 100m breaststroke (1:02.57), the 200m breaststroke (2:21.40) - ahead of Albert Chaussard (2:22.52) and Anton Fedoseev (2:23.84) - and the 200m individual medley (2:09.60).

Also noteworthy was Jacqueline Banky, who secured four individual titles: the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, in addition to the 100m freestyle.