16-Year Old Anastasiya Shkurdai Breaks Euro Jr Champs and Belarusian Records

2019 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, July 3rd – Sunday, July 7th
• Aquatics Palace, Kazan, Russia
• LCM
• Meet Site
• Entry List
• Live Results
• Live Stream

At just 16-years old, Anastasiya Shkurdai has broken the Belarusian and European Junior Swimming Championships records in the women’s 100 meter butterfly. Her winning time of 57.39 cracked her own National Record of 57.75 that was done in April at the Belarusian Championships, which in turn broke he own record of 57.78 from the Belarusian Junior Championships earlier that month.

The last Belarusian record holder besides Shkurdai was Alieksandra Herasimenia, better known as a backstroker, who swam 58.09 at the Spanish Championships in 2012. Shkurdai has already been under 58 now in 4 separate swims across 4 separate meets in the last 3 months.

The time also breaks her own Meet Record of 58.20 that was set in the semi-finals. The Championship Record prior to this year was a 58.76 set by Germany’s Lena Kalla at the 2009 edition of the meet.

Splits Comparison:

Shkurdai’s swim in finals on Saturday was incredibly aggressive, opening in 26.53. That’s a competitive opening split with almost every butterflier in the world, save for Sarah Sjostrom. She still held on better in the last 50 than she has in the past. Her time would have qualified for the final at the 2017 World Championships. Belarus has only had 1 finalist in this event in history at Worlds: Alena Popchanka, who was 4th in Barcelona in 2003.

The European Junior Record time standard is a 56.06, based on the (then World Record) swim by Sarah Sjostrom at the 2009 World Championships when she was 15.

This was Belarus’ 1st gold medal of the meet, and 2nd total medal after Shkurdai’s bronze medal finish in the 200 back (2:11.84). The 50 fly is still to come at this meet.