The home crowd gave the swimmers an incredible support during the competitions on this Friday evening of the LEN European Short Course Champs. Among the Danish triumphs of the evening were the young and talented Mie Oe. Nielsen who took the gold on 100m backstroke.
Paolo Barelli, President of the European Swimming Federation LEN, were very enthusiastic about the event: – It will be a hard job following the Danes in hosting these Championships! It is an amazing arena, and the Danish home crowd is overwhelming. Temporary pools like this is the future.”
The tension and atmosphere of the Jyske Bank BOXEN was a great deal more evident this evening than yesterday. The crowd filled the BOX to the brim, every single one of them looking forward to a most exciting evening of competition. And it really turned out to be a successful evening for Danish Swimming, especially when Mie. Oe. Nielsen won the 100m backstroke in a new European Record time of 55.99.
Another Dane, Rikke Moeller Pedersen, was in the pool this evening dueling her Russian rival Yuliya Efimova. This amazing race ended with a silver medal for the Dane and a most spectacular World Record in 2.14.39 and gold medal for Efimova. Lotte Friis and Jeanette Ottesen also took silver in their respective races 800m freestyle and 50m butterfly, adding to the Danish medal record which now consists of five medals total.
– It has been a real celebration in the BOX today. Hopefully the roof will blow off tomorrow evening, as we have sold approximately 4.000 tickets for the finals by now. This amazing atmosphere must have reached a lot of people sitting home and watching, so I’m confident that the numbers will go up during tomorrow as well, says the project manager of the Championships Jakob Staun.
The co-host of the events in the City of Herning shares Mr. Staun’s enthusiasm: – When we first started planning filling water in the Jyske Bank BOX this was exactly what we were hoping for. To prove that the multiarena could host such an event, and that this further would satisfy both athletes, hosts and audience, says head of Cityplanning, Industri and Culture of the City of Herning, Joergen Krog.
– We are very pleased that the President of LEN has praised the way we have done things at these Championships. Sport Event Denmark are always collaborating with other associations and the host city to make unique and special events on Danish soil. So it is a relief to have these efforts appreciated from the international association, says Lars Lundov, director of Sport Event Denmark.
At Friday evening the ticket sale runs up to 21.700 sold tickets which is far beyond the number of tickets sold for the sixteen previous European Championships. It is however still possible to buy tickets for the competitions at Saturday and Sunday to experience a unique and exciting swimming experience.
Buy your tickets and follow the event at www.herning2013.com.
The European Short Course Championships 2013 are held in the Jyske Bank BOXEN in Herning on the 12.-15. of December.
Each day are preliminary heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon.
559 of the best European swimmers from 41 different nations are competing at the Championships in Herning.
Lotte Friis, Jeanette Ottesen Gray, Rikke Møller Pedersen, Mads Glæsner and 25 other danish swimmers have qualified making it the largest team selected for a European Championship ever.
The European Championships are held in association between The Danish Swimming Federation, Sport Event Denmark and the City of Herning.
Link for photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/svoemdk/