2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Meet Packet
- Team Leaders’ Guide
- SwimSwam Event Page
- SwimSwam Preview
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
Records continued to fall on day 2 of the World Junior Championships as Mikhail Shcherbakov, who represents the Neutral Athletes ‘B’ team, took down the Championship Record in the boys’ 200 IM.
Shcherbakov threw down a massive lifetime best time of 1:57.25, knocking almost two seconds off of his former best time and shaving .04 off of the meet record in this event. The previous Championship Record was a time of 1:57.29, set by Maximus Williamson of the U.S. in 2023.
Shcherbakov was out fast in 25.09 to claim the lead after the butterfly, but fell back to second on the backstroke. He reclaimed the lead on the freestyle leg, charging home in 28.15 to pass Japanese swimmer Yumeki Kojima.
Shcherbakov’s splits on the front end of the race kept him ahead of Williamson’s record-setting pace all the way through the breaststroke, but Williamson had a much faster freestyle split back in 2023 that meant Shcherbakov just managed to stay under Williamson’s final time to break the Championship Record.
Split Comparison
| Shcherbakov | Williamson | |
| Fly | 25.09 | 25.29 |
| Back | 29.60 | 29.72 |
| Breast | 34.41 | 35.02 |
| Free | 28.15 | 27.26 |
| Total | 1:57.25 | 1:57.29 |
Shcherbakov has been on a roll this season in the 200 IM, as he has now set personal best times at three competitions in a row. He kicked off the season with a 1:59.46 at the Russian Championship in April and went on to post a 1:59.04 at the LEN European Championships in July. His performance here in Otopeni marked a huge improvement, as he skipped over the 1:58 range entirely to post his first-ever time in the 1:57 range.
His performance notably ranks him 11th in the world in the 200 IM this season.
Tonight’s race marked Shcherbakov’s second medal of the meet, as he already helped the NAB team to a victory in the boys’ 4×100 freestyle relay on day one. He is set to race the 100 free and 50 back later this week.
