Greece’s Andrea Vazaios won gold and set a new European record in the men’s 200m IM at the 2019 European Short Course Swimming Championships.
The 25-year-old Olympian beat his personal best of 1:50.85 to take first place, smashing the previous European Record of 1:51.36 by Hungarian Olympic champion Laszlo Cseh from 2015.
In the final, Vazaios went out strong, splitting 25.23/26.97 (52.20), 31.88/26.77 (58.65) to win the gold. Runner-up in the race was Norwegian Tomoe Hvas and Germany’s Philip Heintz took bronze.
Vazaios was the silver medalist in this event in Copenhagen behind Heitz with a then-national record of 1:53.27. He had earlier taken the long course European Championships gold medal in this 200m IM event in London in 2016.
Not only did Vazaios make history by producing a new European Record, but his 1:50.85 swim now inserts him onto the list of all-time performers in the number three spot, with only American Ryan Lochte swimming faster with his World Record of 1:49.63, while Japan’s Kosuke Hagino is ranked second with his fastest time of 1:50.47.
Vazaios has now also become the first Greek swimmer to become a European Champion in the small pool.