The 2025 European Swimming Championships 25m were a success for Team Belswim
From 2 to 7 December 2025, the European Short Course Swimming Championships were held in Lublin.
Team Belswim participated with seven swimmers (four men and three women): Dumont Sarah, Gaspard Florine, Vanotterdijk Roos, De Schryver Noah, Henveaux Lucas, Laviolette Simon, Verreth Noah
After six days of high-level competition, we can return home with five medals (four silver and one bronze).
Roos Vanotterdijk won two silver medals in the 50m butterfly and 100m medley and reached two additional finals in the 100m butterfly (5th) and 200m breaststroke (8th). Unfortunately, Roos fell ill in the middle of the week and the team made the right decision to withdraw her from the competition.
Florine Gaspard won two medals in the senior category for the first time, silver in the 100m breaststroke in a top time of 1:03.73 (and 1:03.61 in the semi-finals). On the last day of the championship, she swam strongly to win a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke.
In the 50m freestyle, she reached the semi-finals (10th place).
Lucas Henveaux had a difficult start in his favourite event, the 400m freestyle, and did not reach the final.
However, he was able to improve during the week, finishing 5th in the final of the 200m freestyle. He then competed in the 800m freestyle, swimming a very strong race and taking home the silver medal with a new Belgian record of 7:28.03. On the last day, he also secured a place in the final of the 400m medley and again swam a fantastic time. In the heats, he broke the Belgian record with a time of 4:05.04, but in the final he went even faster and swam 4:03.89, finishing 4th.
Sarah Dumont also achieved several personal bests last week. She reached the final of the 800m freestyle with a personal best of 8:23.72 in the heats and a fine 6th place in the final with another personal best of 8:22.83.
Noah Verreth had a tougher championship, but still managed to reach the semi-finals in the 100m backstroke (14th place). We mustn't forget that Noah made a very strong leap forward at the Belgian Short Course Championships not so long ago.
Noah De Schryver competed in the 200m breaststroke, his favourite event, and managed to reach the semi-finals. He gave it his all and it looked like he might make it to the final, but at the end of the race it became more difficult and Noah finished in 15th place.
Simon Laviolette was allowed to swim with the seniors for the very first time as a 17-year-old and came mainly to gain experience. He finished in a respectable 13th place in the 400m medley.
Team Belswim achieved: 5 medals - 8 Belgian records - 10 final places
We at RBSF are very proud of them and would like to congratulate everyone. We wish you a wonderful end to 2025 and look forward to seeing what will be achieved in the long course in 2026.