15-Yr-Old Vivien Jackl (HUN) Fires Off 4:34.96 400 IM European Junior Record

2024 HUNGARIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

While many eyes were on 34-year-old new mom Katinka Hosszu in tonight’s final of the women’s 400m IM at the Hungarian National Championships, a teenager made history en route to gold.

15-year-old Vivien Jackl ripped the best time of her young career, beating a veteran-heavy field to finish in 4:34.96 to top the podium.

The teen split 1:02.98/1:07.22/1:22.51/1:02.36 to claim the gold ahead of veteran Boglarka Kapas, with Kapas registering 4:38.92.

Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas rounded out the podium in 4:39.43, Italy’s Francesca Fresia was 4th in 4:41.57 and former world record holder Katinka Hosszu finished 5th in 4:47.62.

Jackl’s time crushed her previous personal best of 4:40.66 to establish a new 16&U Hungarian Age Record and qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Additionally, Jackl’s time tonight erased the European Junior Record in the event, a time of 4:38.53 put on the books by Spaniard Alba Vazquez Ruiz in 2019.

Jackl’s effort rendered the teen Hungary’s #3 performer of all time in this women’s 400m IM.

Top 5 Hungarian Women LCM 400 IM Performers All-Time

  1. Katinka Hosszu – 4:26.36, 2016
  2. Zsuzsanna Jakabos – 4:34.50, 2013
  3. Vivien Jackl – 4:34.96, 2024
  4. Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas – 4:35.99, 2021
  5. Eva Risztov – 4:36.17, 2002

Jackl now ranks #3 in the world on the season and punches her ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. For additional perspective, Jackl’s result would rank her 4th among all-time performing American 15-16-year-old girls.

Canada’s Summer McIntosh still owns the World Junior Record, however, courtesy of the other-worldly mark of 4:25.87 the teen unleashed at last year’s Canadian World Championships Trials.

2023-2024 LCM Women 400 IM

KayleeAUS
MCKEOWN
04/18
4:28.22
2Summer
McINTOSH
CAN4:29.9612/01
3Katie
GRIMES
USA4:32.4504/13
4Freya
Colbert
GBR4:34.0104/04
5Vivien
JACKL
HUN4:34.9604/11
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Andy
18 days ago

Milak 50.99 in the 100fly finals. I think he’ll be 50 low if not 49 high by Paris

Jhi
18 days ago

hope someday she could break the WR

Stewart Fenwick
18 days ago

My prediction for Paris w400IM:

Summer McIntosh 🥇

Vivien Jackl 🥈

Jenna Forrester 🥉

Troyy
Reply to  Stewart Fenwick
18 days ago

Times?

snailSpace
Reply to  Troyy
18 days ago

McIntosh: 4:25.12 WR

Jackl: 4:30.29

Forrester: 4:30.75

But I do think Grimes is still the favourite for silver, I would just like to see this order instead lol.

STRAIGHTBLACKLINE
18 days ago

Yet another highly talented Hungarian IM er. Why am I not surprised?

Dee
18 days ago

The swimming Gods love sending us young Hungarian IM’ers with absurdly good backstrokes, don’t they? Incredible swim, Congrats!

snailSpace
19 days ago

Apparently, she was 4:46 as a 12 year old in the 400IM, and she *only* dropped 6 seconds in 2 years (her 14 year old PB is 4:40), so her trajectory is actually steepening.

re-re-relay
Reply to  snailSpace
19 days ago

she has trained with the same no-name coach since forever, alone, no team in a pool that’s nice barely modern, so I think she can find a lot of ways to improve (no-name doesn’t mean she is not an awesome coach, just that she isn’t from the Szechy klan)

plus, I am not following your math. At all.

Last edited 19 days ago by re-re-relay
snailSpace
Reply to  re-re-relay
19 days ago

My math is pretty simple.

4:46 at 12.
4:40 at 14.
4:34 at 15.

She dropped the same amount of time in the last year (between 14-15 years of age) than the 2 years before that (between 12-14 years of age). That means she is improving more rapidly right now than she did younger, which is a good sign. Also, none of that was meant as an insult, only as an observation.

Last edited 19 days ago by snailSpace
re-re-relay
Reply to  snailSpace
19 days ago

oh, got. I misread.

Tamas Fekete
Reply to  re-re-relay
19 days ago

wonderfull fly and excellent fast backstroke, but the breaststroke is quite poor, (technically) a lot of moment she can bee better in breaststroke.

re-re-relay
19 days ago

Eva Riszto = Eva Risztov

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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