Japanese swimmer Suzuka Hasegawa has set the Junior World Record in the 200 long course meter fly, pending confirmation by FINA.
See all of the women’s long course Junior World Records, presented by Nike, here.
Hasegawa swam a 2:07.89 to place 2nd in Perth, Australia at the BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series on Saturday.
Note: American Katie McLaughlin was faster (2:07.08) at the Pan Pac Championships, but that swim still hasn’t been recognized by FINA, despite being almost 6 months on.
She will be the first swimmer to officially hold the World Record in this event – no eligible swimmer had yet cleared the FINA-defined “World Best Time” that was used as the benchmark before they would declare a World Junior Record. That “World Best Time” had been a 2:08.10 done at the 2008 World Junior Championships by another Japanese swimmer Natsuki Akiyama.
Hasegawa was born in the year 2000, which means that she’ll be eligible to break these Junior World Records until December 31, 2017.
That gives her a shot at going after the all-time best by a swimmer in the appropriate age category, which was a 2:04.72 done by China’s Jiao Liuyang at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
With two more years to go, Hasegawa was also close at this meet to the 100 fly mark, where she swam a 58.95 – 58.34 is the record there.
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And yet fastest textile at 15 yo is still Meagher who swam 2:07.01 in 1979
fastest 16 yo ever is still the madama butterfly who swam 2:06.37 in 1980
and fastest 17 yo is still again madama butterfly at the legendary 2:05.96 in 1981
She was so ahead of her time.