EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — Twenty-two league records were broken over the weekend during the European Forces Swim League championships, which drew 487 swimmers from 20 military-connected and international schools.
Hallie Kinsey, 9, with the Sigonella Swordfish, set five league records and continued to amass individual gold medals Sunday, receiving a total of eight, the most of any competitor.
Eight-year-old Gregor Heim of the SHAPE Seals was close behind Kinsey’s total as he added three more golds on Sunday, giving him seven for the championships. He set three league records.
A couple of early events set the tone in close races, which continued throughout Sunday’s finals. In the 11-year-old girls 200-meter individual medley, Isabelle Bishop of the Kaiserslautern Kingfish had a strong lead going into the freestyle portion. Bishop started to run out of steam, but she held off surging Greta Kinsey of Sigonella.
Wynonna Rinkacs, 15, of the NATO Marlins, knew she would need to have a strong individual medley to set the tone for Sunday, when she hoped to add to her pair of golds from Saturday.
"I’m a breaststroker, so on the butterfly I just lay back and I save it," said Rinkacs on her strategy. As she fell behind on the butterfly going into the backstroke portion of the race, Rinkacs drifted close to the lane ropes and drafted off then-leader Sarah Doe of the Kaiserslautern Kingfish.
Her plan worked, and she moved ahead on the breaststroke and never looked back. She earned one of her six gold medals for the meet. "I didn’t expect to do that good," said Rinkacs.
Other standouts during the weekend were Tiana Brocious, 8, of Kaiserslautern and Kilian Korth, 14, of the Lakenheath Barracudas, who won seven gold medals apiece; and Nick Goszkowicz, 11, of SHAPE, and Will Viana, 18, of the Stuttgart Panthers, who earned six golds each.
Korth, who trains with a British swim team, said he is pushed to do better by his teammates. After setting his fifth league record of the weekend, Korth said "I expected to win. At championships, you have to make sure your mind is not on anything but swimming."
The EFSL championships are focused on the individual, but medal counts are kept for teams. Kaiserslautern led with 94.
