2023 World Junior Swimming Championships
- September 4 – 9, 2023
- Netanya, Israel
- Wingate Institute
- LCM (50m)
- Local Start Times: 9:30 am / 6:00 pm
- EST Start Times: 2:30 am / 11:00 am
- Meet Central
- How To Watch
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
World Aquatics has released the 2023 World Juniors Swimming Championships pysch sheet. The meet runs from September 4-9 from the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Israel.
There are over 640 athletes entered in the meet representing 94 different nations. For comparison, last year, there were 509 entered athletes representing 87 nations.
The 2022 edition was initially scheduled to be held in Kazan, Russia, but was rescheduled and relocated to Lima, Peru. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the change in venue/dates, and a crowded 2022 schedule, numerous nations like the United States, Australia, and China chose not to send teams to Lima.
Several nations do not appear in the entries this year. Portugal, which won three golds (all courtesy of Diogo Ribeiro), is absent from the entries, as is Hungary, which tied for 2nd in the medal table with 14 overall medals (seven of which were gold). So too is medal-winning countries from last year’s edition, Turkey (eight medals) and France (two medals).
The most populated events are the men’s 100 free, where there are 109 entrants, and there are 93 entrants in both the women’s 50 and 100 free. Unsurprisingly, the 1500 contains the fewest entrants, with 31 men entered and 28 women.
Four men are entered in eight events each: Grenada’s Nathan Fletcher, Jamaica’s Nelson Denny, Tanzania’s Delbert Panya, and Uganda’s Tendo Kaumi. Topping those four is Botswana’s Melodi Saleshando, who is entered in a whopping ten individual events: the 50s and 100s of the four strokes and the 200s breast and IM.
Highlighted Entries
Keep an eye out for the storylines articles for a more in-depth look at the meet and entries.
Opportunities abound as there are few returning gold medalists from last year. On the men’s side, only Japan’s Riku Yamaguchi returns to defend his 400 IM gold, while fellow Japanese swimmer Mizuki Hirai will look to replicate her win in the women’s 100 fly. Due to the nature of the age limitations, it is not surprising to see only a small number of returning champions.
Looking to jump to the top of the podium is a hungry crop of young Americans. Leading that charge are Daniel Diehl and Leah Hayes, both of whom finished an agonizing 3rd at the U.S. Trials.
Diehl finds himself the top seed in 100 back by over a second and will also contest the 200 IM (2nd seed), 50 back (4th seed), 100 free (3rd seed), and 200 back (2nd seed). Hayes, for her part, will look to defend her top billing in the 200 and 400 IM while looking to improper her placing in the 200 free, 3rd.
Standing in her way is Canada’s Ella Jansen, who will compete with Hayes in all three of her events. Jansen also will swim the 400 free and 100 butterfly, where she is the 1st and 5th seed, respectively.
Diehl will find himself with some stiff competition, as not only is teammate Max Williamson ahead of him in the 100 free, but so is 2023 World gold medalist Flynn Southam. The Aussie finds himself as the top seed in the 50/100/200 free and will look to replicate the success that helped him win three medals in Fukuoka.
Also holding the top three spots in her discipline in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Lana Pudar. Pudar sits atop the 50/100/200 fly and will look to improve upon her 4th place at Worlds in the 200 fly.
Looking to do the same in the breaststroke is Estonia’s Eneli Jefimova, who holds down the top spots in the 50 and 100 but sits over half a second behind Japan’s Mina Nakazawa.
Another key American to watch for is Teagan O’Dell, who is the top seed in the girls’ 100 and 200 back and also comes in ranked 8th in the 50 back.
Schedule of Events
The Junior World Championships will see the same 42 events as the World Championships but spread out over six days as opposed to the eight used in Fukuoka.
The timing of this meet is brutal for North American swimmers.It means they must train right through their summer break or show up out of shape.18 year olds are going to their 1st season at college and need to be at their university getting set up and starting their NCAA career.So it goes.
It’s brutal for Australian swimmers too. If my kid had been able to go to the 2021 version ( it was cancelled), it would have been right at the time of uni exams. Some of Aussies who went to Irvine this year had to defer Uni exams.
Southam, Somerville, Wunsch, Jansen
Hello WR
47.77 Southam
48.68 Sommerville (split from age champs)
54.05 Wunsch (flat)
53.67 Jansen (split from Jr Pan Pacs)
3:24.17
WR: 3:25.92
But there’s a bit of a schedule problem. The girls 100 FR final is only 20 mins before and the medal ceremony is in between 💩
personally I’m more intrigued by how close Wunsch/Jansen/Casey/DeLutiis relay will get to the Ruck/Oleksiak/Smith/Sanchez WJR
WJR 3:36.19
PBs
Wunsch 54.05
Casey 54.30
Jansen 54.36
De Lutiis 54.71
=3:37.42 -1.5 for relay starts
=3:35.92
So if each of them matches their PBs AND makes the most of their flying starts they will drop a quarter of a second off the record.
I would say it’s possible but a few of them tend to be a bit inconsistent so not sure.
it also doesn’t help that the semi’s of both the 50 free and 100 fly are in the same session so Casey would have a double, and Wunsch has the triple
WJR
Mark, you missed a few countries: No Jordan or Egypt. Long flights I guess. Morocco is going, to answer the elephant in the room.
Jefimova is from Estonia, not Finland
Isn’t Jefimova Estonian? Wish Hungary was sending their girls to up the competition.
No semifinals of 200s??? What a brilliant idea!
No room for semifinals of the 200s in the six-day format. Additionally …..
Just an opinion here – semifinals of the 200s can also mean strategic reduction of individual slates due to the heavy load (as well as relay management). This is understandable at the Olympic Games, World Champs, etc.
But at the junior level, it’s probably a good idea to allow individual slates with as many different events as is practical with Prelims + Finals, rather than over-specializing. Even at the World Junior level, the athletes are still developing. Don’t want to force (too many) choices at this stage of the game.
Diehl gonna kill it
I’m excited to see how Enoch Robb’s ridiculous scm swims translate to long course.
Lorne Wigginton has the second seed in the 400 IM with his 4:16.14 from Canadian trials, but swam a huge PB of 4:13.75 at Fukuoka.
Should be seeded 3rd. His 4:13.7 is slightly behind both the Japanese swimmers who have PBs of 4:12.2 & 4:12.4
I think he’s going to win it in 4:11 high or 4:12 low.