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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Coming off an impressive senior international debut in early December at the European Short Course Championships, Turkish teenager Doruk Yogurtcuoglu had another strong showing at the Turkish Youth & Open Championships (SCM), which ran Dec. 24-28 in Antalya.
Yogurtcuoglu, 17, picked up the victory in the men’s 200 breaststroke, clocking 2:05.18 to lower his newly minted personal best time of 2:05.24, set at SC Euros where he finished 11th, and move him up to #2 all-time in Turkey, only trailing national record holder Berkay Omer Ogretir (2:03.78).
Already the fastest 17-year-old Turkish swimmer ever in the SCM 200 breast, Yogurtcuoglu came into the meet this past week with a PB of 59.92 in the 100 breast, which ranked him 3rd all-time among 17-year-olds in the country.
However, in Antalya, Yogurtcuoglu put up a time of 59.27 to overtake Nusrat Allahverdi (59.63) and Emre Sakci (59.88) as the fastest Turk ever at 17.
A few days earlier at the long course portion of the meet, Yogurtcuoglu set a best time in the LCM 100 breast, clocking 1:01.33 to lower his previous mark of 1:01.45, which already had him as the fastest 17-year-old Turk ever and the only one under 1:02.
Yogurtcuoglu also set best times in the 50 breast (28.01) and 400 IM (4:18.67) at the SCM meet.
The Galatasaray Sports Club product won gold in the boys’ 200 breast (2:12.66) at the 2024 European Junior Championships (LCM), and then this past summer, he was the runner-up in a lifetime best of 2:09.92.
The latter performance ranks him #3 all-time among 18 & under Europeans, and just like the short course event, puts him #2 all-time in Turkey, though in that race he’s only six one-hundredths back of Omer Ogretir’s national record (2:09.86).
One month after breaking 2:10 for the first time at Euro Juniors, Yogurtcuoglu did it again at World Juniors, placing 4th in a time of 2:09.97.
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