Karolina Pelendritou finished in 5th place in the S11 50-meter freestyle final, which took place on Monday evening (September 7), at the European Championships in Kocaeli, Turkey.
Karolina was on track for a medal, but just before the finish, she hit the lane rope hard and effectively stopped her attempt, only to start again and finish, though behind the top four, with a time of 31.92.
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The Dutch swimmers Bruinsma and Van Drimmelen took first and second place, with Ukraine’s Tkachuk finishing third.
It should be noted that athletes in the S11 class compete wearing black goggles and cannot see anything at all, so avoiding collisions with the lanes is one of their biggest challenges.
The three-time Paralympic gold medalist clocked a time of 30.63 in the morning preliminaries, which was the third-best overall across both preliminary heats. A time that would actually have earned her the gold in the final, since it was even better than the 30.66 set by the winner, Liesette Bruinsma.
Karolina Pelendritou’s efforts are supported by the KOA and KEPE, as well as her long-time sponsor, Allwyn Cyprus, and SWANS and the TATOI CLUB.
