SCHWECHAT, Austria, July 26. MIRNA Jukic set the European record in the 200 breast during the third day of swimming at the Austrian Championships.
Jukic clocked a time of 2:23.90, downing Hungarian Agnes Kovacs' previous record of 2:24.03 set at the 2000 Olympic Games.
"I am excited!" Jukic said in a rough translation. "I was not expecting this time."
Several Austrian standards have also been set thus far. Jordis Steinegger broke her own record in the 400 IM with a time of 4:43.28. Her previous record stood at 4:45.67 from March. Meanwhile, Nina Dittrich posted a time of 8:38.48 to crush Petra Zahrl's record of 8:47.31 in the 800 free.
Dittrich then broke the 200 back national record with a time of 2:17.02. That performance cleared the 2:18.32 set by Barbara Auer in 2000. Steinegger returned with a 400 free national record of 4:10.73, lowering her own standard of 4:11.88 set in 2007. Dinko Jukic followed with a 53.32 in the men's 100 fly.
Steinegger grabbed her third national record of the meet in the 200 free with a time of 1:59.17, becoming the first Austrian woman under 2:00 as her previous standard was a 2:01.24 from March.
Special thanks to Stefan Lackner for contributing to this report.