The American Junior Pan Pacs team has set the Junior World Record in the girls’ 400 medley relay on Saturday night in Maui, Hawaii, swimming a 4:03.44.
That clears the standard-bearing swim of 4:04.48 done at last year’s Junior World Championships that is the initial standard for FINA’s official Junior World Records.
The American team was made up of Amy Bilquist (1997), Lilly King (1997), Hannah Kukurugya (1998), and Katie Drabot (1997).
This adds to the Junior World Record set by a different group of swimmers in the 400 free relay on Friday. Drabot was the only carry over from that relay to this one.
The splits:
- Amy Bilquist – 1:01.52
- Lilly King – 1:08.03
- Hannah Kukurugya – 59.13
- Katie Drabot – 54.76
Not to be missed, the Japanese relay finished 2nd in 4:04.11 with four swimmers who have two more years of being eligible for Junior World Records: Rio Shirai (1999), Runa Imai (2000), Suzuka Hasegawa (2000), Rikako Ikee (2000).
Their splits:
- Shirai 1:02.37
- Imai 1:08.18
- Hasegawa 58.69
- Ikee 54.87
The youth of those swimmers makes this Junior World Record seem like it could be short-lived at best. The question is whether the Japanese will swim those four together at the junior level again before they age up and start combining with Japan’s best senior swimmers. The last two legs, Hasegawa and Ikee especially, are on the verge already.
The US curretly holds all 3 JWR for women’s relays and the largest number of individual women’s JWR! :-). Go USA!
I must point out that 3 of the 4 swimmers on the relay are from Indiana!