17-Year-Old Miroslav Knedla Breaks His Own Czech Record in 200 IM Again (2:00.26)

2023 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, July 4th – Sunday, July 9th
• Sports and Recreational Center “Milan Gale Muškatirović,” Belgrade, Serbia
• Prelims at 10am local (4am EDT)/Finals at 5pm local (11am EDT)
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Czech teen Miroslav Knedla broke his own national record in the 200 IM for the second time in two days with a personal-best 2:00.26 at the European Junior Championships on Thursday night.

The 17-year-old backstroke specialist shaved a few tenths off his previous-best 2:00.57 from Wednesday’s semifinals, which came on the back half of a double featuring a 50 back win (24.88, just off his national-record 24.75 from May). Before this meet, Knedla’s lifetime best was a 2:01.28 from April’s Stockholm Open.

Knedla’s National Records, Splits Comparison

Knedla split 30.00 on the backstroke leg this time around, which is where most of his time drop came from. Before he first broke the national record in April, Jakub Bursa held the mark with a 2:01.69 from the 2021 European Junior Championships.

Knedla’s improvement in the event over the past year has been remarkable. He didn’t even swim the 200 IM at last year’s European Junior championships, placing 5th in both the 50 back (25.39) and 100 back (55.17). But his 2:01.28 from April took more than four seconds off his previous-best 2:05.35 from last May’s Mare Nostrum tour. With his new personal-best 2:00.26, he would now rank 16th in the U.S. 17-18 boys’ national age group (NAG) rankings, for reference.

BOYS 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – FINAL

• World Junior Record: 1:56.99, Hubert Kos (2021)
• European Junior Record: 1:56.99, Hubert Kos (2021)
• European Record: 1:55.18, Laszlo Cseh (2009)
• Championship Record: 1:59.17, Tom Dean (2018)
• 2022 European Junior Champion: Sanberk Yigit Oktar (Turkey), 2:00.68

PODIUM:

• GOLD: Miroslav Knedla (Czech Republic) – 2:00.26
• SILVER: Christian Mantegazza (Italy) – 2:01.10
• BRONZE: Matthew Ward (Great Britain) – 2:01.17

Italy’s Christian Mantegazza was about a second behind Knedla with a 2:01.10, four-tenths off his best time (2:00.70) from April. Great Britain’s Matthew Ward also set a new lifetime best with third-place finish in 2:01.17, taking almost a second off his previous-best 2:01.94 from the British World Championship Trials in April.