2024 SC World Championships Day Three Prelims Record Roundup

2024 Short Course World Championships

• December 10-15, 2024
• Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Central
• Roster Index
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Pick’em
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Prelims Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
• Finals Live Recap: Day 1  | Day 2

We entered day three of the 2024 Short Course World Championships in Budapest, Hungary and the record-breaking siege continued.

Canada’s Summer McIntosh set a new World Junior Record in the prelims of the women’s 200m fly and American Gretchen Walsh posted a new competition standard in the women’s 100m IM.

In addition to these, however, a slew of national records bit the dust on both the men’s and women’s sides, setting a speedy tone heading into tonight’s session.

Day 3 Prelims National Record Round-up

• Estonian Raf Tribunstov established a new national record in the men’s 50m back prelims, setting a mark of 23.06 to capture the 7th seed. He held the previous Estonian benchmark at 23.13, a time he produced in the semi-finals of this event at last year’s European Short Course Championships. The 30-year-old already raced in the semi-finals of the men’s 100m back here in Budapest, ultimately finishing in 10th place (50.25), also a new Estonian national record.
• Mantas Kaspedas had to swim twice this morning to capture the 16th seed in the men’s 50 back. He first posted a time of 23.37 to tie Yohann Ndoye-Brouard of Frace as the 16th seed before crushing a huge lifetime best of 22.91 to win the swim-off and book his place in the final. Kaspedas’ effort is a big-time improvement upon his previous PB and established a new Lithuanian record, making the teen the first-ever Lithuanian to break the 23-second barrier.
• Three national records went down in the prelims of the men’s 200m fly, first with Ilya Kharun making his presence known for the nation of Canada. 19-year-old Kharun captured the 2nd seed with a swift 1:50.11, a new lifetime best. His previous PB and Canadian record stood at the 1:50.86 posted in the heats of the 2022 edition of this competition so the teen managed to hack well over half a second off that result to easily move into tonight’s final.
• Jack Cassin of Ireland matched Brendan Hyland‘s national record of 1:53.19 in the heats of the men’s 200m fly. That rendered Cassin the 16th seed out of this morning’s prelims.
• Kregor Zirk managed to fire off a new Estonian standard of 1:50.39 en route to tying Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski for the 3rd seed in the men’s 200m fly. Olympian Zirk’s outing overtook his previous national record of 1:50.51 he logged to place 5th in this event in Melbourne two years ago.
• South Africa’s Rebecca Meder continued her record-breaking ways in Budapest, turning in a new lifetime best and national record of 58.44 in the women’s 100m IM. That secured the 5th seed for the 22-year-old who already nailed a new South African record of 2:05.61 in the 200m IM.
• Ellen Walshe of Ireland also fired off a new national standard in the women’s 100m IM, posting a time of 58.85 to claim the 8th seed for this evening’s semi-final. Walshe’s former PB and Irish mark stood at the 59.30 hit at November’s Ulster Championships. That means she’s the first-ever Irish woman to dip under the 59-second barrier in the event with potentially two more rounds to go.
• The men’s 100m IM saw Spain’s Carlos Coll Marti secure the 3rd seed with a new national record of 51.70. That shaved .03 off his previous benchmark of 51.70 logged just last month at the Spanish National Championships.
• The 5th-seeded swimmer in the men’s 100m IM, Caio Pumputis, bagged a new Brazilian national record this morning. The 25-year-old’s time of 51.81 was a hair inside his old record of 51.83 notched 6 years ago at the 2018 Jose Finkel Trophy.
• 19-year-old Petar Mitsin of Bulgaria sneaked into tonight’s men’s 400m IM final with a 7th-seeded result of 3:38.94 this morning. That registered a new personal best and national record, destroying the World Junior champion and European Junior champion’s old record of 3:41.19 from last year’s European Short Course World Championships. He’s the first Bulgarian to dip under the 3:40 threshold in this SCM 400 free.