2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
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The fourth night of finals at the 2025 World Junior Championships was one for the books, with stars Yang Peiqi, Audrey Derivaux, and Nikita Sheremet making the major headlines. However, SwimSwam wants to highlight a few performances that may have gone under the radar and weren’t discussed in significant detail in its own article or during the live recap:
- In the boys’ 200 breaststroke final, Romania’s Darius-Stefan Coman was in 7th for the entirety of the race until the final five meters, when he touched the wall equal 6th on the very last stroke. His time of 2:11.89 broke his own Romanian national record of 2:11.94. That previous record was set at the semifinals of European Junior Championships last month, where he finished 5th. His swim represents his second national record of the meet, having already broken 1:01 for the first time en route to 10th in the 100 breast. What makes it all the more sweeter is that he accomplished these feats on home soil.
- Jessica Thompson, who represents South Africa, broke the 28-second barrier for the first time in the girls’ 50 back semifinals with a time of 27.98. The 18-year-old Virginia commit’s previous best was 28.29, which earned her silver at the South African National Championships in April. She now sits 0.07 outside of the South African national record in the event, 27.91 set by Olivia Nel last month at the World University Games. Thompson’s been on fire so far this week, clocking a 26.09 personal best in the 50 fly semifinals before touching 8th in the final at 26.71. She also punched a season best of 1:01.90 to secure 14th in the 100 back.
- Germany’s Noelle Benkler notched a new lifetime best of 2:12.54 for 5th in the girls’ 200 IM final. Her time improved on her previous personal best of 2:12.74 from the European Juniors last month, where she won silver. The swim was a bounceback after narrowly missing out on a spot in the 400 IM final earlier in the week, where she finished 9th. She was 6th after fly, 2nd after back, 4th after breast, and fell to 5th on the free leg with splits of 28.75, 33.37, 38.87, and 31.55.
- Australia’s Tex Cross continued his strong showing in Otopeni with a 1:48.53 split on Australia’s 5th-place 4×200 free relay. His flat start best is 1:49.32 from the Australian Age & MC Championships this past April, so he almost undercut that mark by a full second from a relay start. Earlier in the meet, Cross produced a career best of 3:49.81 in the 400 free preliminaries for fourth, but improved to 3:48.17 to take 4th in the final—only his second time under 3:50.
