Sixteen-Year-Old John Shortt Lowers Irish Senior 200 Back Record To 1:58.65 At European Juniors
John Shortt set an Irish 200m backstroke record of 1:58.65 at the European Juniors in Belgrade, three months after the 16-year-old broke the two-minute barrier for the first time.
Shortt, who is heading to the World Championships as part of the Swim Ireland team later this month, sliced 0.15 from Conor Ferguson‘s standard of 1:58.80 from 2017 as he continued to make a stir in senior waters.
The pair will be teammates in Fukuoka with the younger man opting to go to world titles rather than compete at the European Youth Olympic Festival for which he also qualified given his tender years.
He is coached at the National Centre Limerick by John Szaranek and only broke 2mins for the first time in April when he went 1:59.23 at the Irish Open Championships, only the second Irishman inside that barrier.
On Thursday, he split 28.08/58.34/1:28.43/1:58.65 to rewrite the record books and head the prelims by 1.03secs from Ukraine’s Oleksandr Zheltyakov – silver medallist in the 50 – who clocked 1:59.68 and France’s Merlin Ficher (2:00.03).
Dora Molnar won the 100/200 back double among four golds at last year’s European Juniors in Otopeni, Romania, which she followed up with bronze over four lengths at the European Championships in Rome.
Dora Molnar: Photo Courtesy: musz.hu
The Hungarian – who turned 17 last Thursday – has already won relay gold and silver in Serbia and she headed the 200 back prelims in 2:12.19.
Estella Tonrath Nollgen was next through in 2:12.72 with British pair Holly McGill and Evie Dilley – the 2022 bronze medallist also progressing.
Lorenzo Ballarati headed the boys’ 50 free prelims in 22.81 as 0.12secs separated the top four qualifiers into the evening semis.
Behind the Italian came Szymon Misiak of Poland in 22.89 with France’s Alexandre Chalendar and Italian Davide Passafaro both on 22.93.
Ballarati and Passafaro were members of the Italian boys’ 4×100 free quartet that won gold on the opening evening with the latter also taking silver with the mixed freestyle squad.
Casper Puggaard went 52.81 in the 100 fly – his third best time of the season – with the Dane the only man inside 53secs.
The 2022 silver medallist was followed by Ivan Harbarchuk of Ukraine (53.64) and Austria’s Lukas Edl (53.68).
Eneli Jefimova won the 50 breaststroke on Wednesday as she started her bid to repeat her sweep of the breaststroke events at the 2022 European Juniors.
The Estonian returned for the 200 prelims, progressing third in 2:28.71 behind Grace Palmer (2:28.41) and Lena Ludwig (2:28.43).
Collin Van Der Hoff of the Netherlands headed the boys’ heats in 2:16.61.
Germany led the girls’ 4×200 prelims in 8:10.96 with individual champion Nikolett Padar leading off the Hungarian quartet who clocked 8:11.14 and Belgium third through in 8:13.03.