European gold medal 'very special' - Nowacki

Brent Pilnick - BBC SportFri, August 14, 2026 at 11:04 AM UTC

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Filip Nowacki added European gold to his commonwealth Games title

Teenage swimming sensation Filip Nowacki says winning his first senior European Championship title is "very special".

The 18-year-old from Jersey, who is the world junior champion, won the 200m breaststroke in Paris.

His victory was the first ever for a Channel Island athlete at European level.

It was his second major senior title in less than a month after he won gold for Jersey in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

"It's very special," he told BBC Sport after winning gold.

"To have won my first European title straight after winning a Commonwealth Games title is something I'm definitely going to have to do a lot of reflecting on."

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Nowacki finished sixth in the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week, 0.01 seconds behind fellow Briton Adam Ramsay-Peaty - reversing their result from the Commonwealth Games where the Jerseyman pipped the world record-holder to the silver medal.

His win in Paris saw him storm back in the second half of the race - he was sixth at the 100m point and second behind Dutch rival Caspar Corbeau at the 150m turn.

But Nowacki forced his way through the field to win in 2:07.70, 0.08 seconds in front of Olympic bronze-medallist Corbeau.

"I knew the lads were going to take it out very fast and my strength is almost bringing it back," Nowacki added.

"So I almost had to let them go out, do their race plan and go out fast.

"But I had to make sure that I was within fighting distance with 100 to go and with 50 to go, but I could sense Caspar was pulling away at every wall so I was almost playing catch up every single length."

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