Gold was the first Estonian in the water and immediately got off to a strong start, setting a new national record for the women's 100m freestyle of 55.58 seconds. Gold she reached the semi-finals as the twelfth quickest in the field.

"I'm very happy that I got such a good result in my first start," said Gold after the swim. "I knew that if I could swim a personal best, I should make it to the semi-finals, but I tried to be positive before the start and not overthink it."

Czechia's Barbora Seemanova was quickest in the women's 100m freestyle heats (54.04 seconds). She was followed by fellow Czech Barbora Janíčková (54.55 seconds) in second and Hungary's Nikolett Pádár in third (54.85 seconds).

Estonia's top men's swimmer in recent years, Daniel Zaitsev, was 13th quickest in the heats for the 50m butterfly with a time of 23.70 seconds, meaning he also made it to the semi-finals.

"I did one stroke less than usual, but there is definitely room for improvement in the evening, especially in terms of the depth of the strokes, which was not very good," said Zaitsev, whose season's best so far is 23.48 seconds.

 "The morning time was an okay introduction, but in the evening I need to be faster and I believe that a place in the final is achievable," Zaitsev said.

The heats for the men's 50m butterfly were very competitive with only 0.46 seconds between the first sixteen finishers. Vladyslav Bukhov of Ukraine (23.33 seconds) was the fastest in the morning, followed by Meiron Cheruti of Israel (23.37 seconds). Greece's Stergios Bilas was third (23.42 seconds).

The semi-finals of the men's 50m butterfly at the European Aquatics Championship in Belgrade will be held on Monday evening at 7.30 p.m. Estonian time.

The semi-finals of the women's 100m freestyle semi-finals start shortly after – at 7.37 p.m.

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