2019 FINA World Juniors: Day 1 Finals Preview

7TH FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019

• Duna Arena, Budapest (Hungary)
• Pool swimming: Tuesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 25, 2019
• Heats 9:30am GMT+2 (3:30 am EDT / 12:30 am PDT)/ Semifinals and Finals 5:30pm GMT+2 (11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT)
• 50-meter (LCM) course
• Meet site
• Entries book
• FinaTV Live Stream (subscription required)
• Live results

The 2019 FINA World Junior Championships are officially underway as the first finals session is now hours away. Tonight, the first two individual world junior champions will be crowned alongside two more medal relays and four semi-finals. Here’s the event line-up for the first finals session.

Day 1 Finals Session:

• Men’s 400 Free- Final
• Women’s 50 Breast- Semifinals
• Men’s 100 Back- Semifinals
• Women’s 400 IM- Final
• Men’s 100 Breast- Semifinals
• Women’s 100 Back- Semifinals
• Men’s 4×100 Free Relay- Final
• Women’s 4×200 Free Relay- Final

Earlier in the heats, two championship records were taken down. The first was by Hungarian Gabor Zombori, who leads the men’s 400 free by nearly 3 seconds with his new record time of 3:46.97. Shortly after, Italian Thomas Ceccon led the top 16 men’s 100 back semifinalists with his championship record of 54.07.

Along with Zombori and Ceccon, 14-year-old Italian Benedetta Pilato will also be on record watch as she leads the women’s 50 breast semifinals with her top time of 30.35. At the senior World Championships meet, Pilato popped a 29.98 in the 50 breast while being crowned world runner-up in the final later in the meet. The ratified world junior record and championships record stands at 29.86, just a tenth off Pilato’s lifetime best.

Here are some more storylines to follow heading into tonight’s finals session:

• The top 5 qualifiers of the women’s 400 IM final are separated by just 2 seconds, led by Spain’s Alba Ruiz Vasquez (4:43.17). All in gold medal/top 3 contention are Brit Michaella Glenister, Americans Isabel Gormley and Grace Sheble, and Hungarian Viktoria Farkas-Mihalyvari.
• Americans Kevin Houseman and Josh Matheny will headline both the semifinal heats of the men’s 100 breast after going PBs in the morning session. Brit Archie Goodburn along with Japanese teammates Shoma Sato and Yuta Arai are other top names to keep an eye on.
• Canadian Jade Hannah was the lone woman under one minute in the women’s 100 back prelims with a 59.91. A big contender for the gold medal will be rising Israeli Anastasia Gorbenko, who qualified third in prelims with a new national record. Right on her tail heading into the semifinals are Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan and Americans Claire Curzan and Annabel Crush.