Ana Blazevic, 19, Crushes Croatian Record in the 200 Breast

Golden Orlando International Swimming Meet

• May 6-7, 2023
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Long Course Meters (50m)
• Full Meet Results

A pair of Balkan national records fell last weekend at the “Golden Orlando” meet in Dubrovnik, Croatia last weekend, with Ana Blazevic taking out a home nation mark and Amina Kajtaz clearing a Bosnia & Herzegovina standard.

Blazevic, 19, won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:25.94, which by World Aquatics points was the best performance of the meet. That swim undercut her previous personal best of 2:27.29 that was done at August’s European Championships and was the previous National Record.

Splits Comparison:

Blazevic’s pacing on her new personal best time was significantly different than her prior swim. She went out much slower on Saturday, but by the end of the 2nd 50 had already reclaimed that deficit. From there, she chewed away at the record, eventually breaking it by over a second.

Her time from Euros placed her 12th in the semi-final, though her new swim from last weekend would have earned her 5th place in the final.

Prior to her 2:27.72 in April 2022, this record had stood for more than 21 years since Mirna Jukic swam 2:28.29 in April 2001. Blazevic has now been under that old record five times.

She swam only 1:10.46 in the 100 breaststroke a day later, which is slower than her personal best of 1:09.04.

The other National Record to fall was in the women’s 400 IM. The winner was a 4:49.89 from Amina Kajtaz, who until 2022 represented BIH but now swims for Crotia. If she were still representing BIH that annihilated the old national record of 4:56.74 that was set by Iman Avdic in March 2022.

Avdic, who turns 16 this year, also swam at this meet, winning the 200 free (2:02.85), 400 free (4:18.00), and 200 IM (2:21.58). She was also under her old National Record in the 400 IM, swimming 4:54.47.

Splits Comparison:

The winning result is out-of-the-blue for Kajtaz, who turns 27 this year. Born in Germany, she represented Croatia for the first time at the European Championships last summer. Primarily a butterflier, she has no prior results in the 400 IM listed in the primary European results database, SwimRankings.

Other Notable Swims:

• BIH’s Kenan Dracic had a breakthrough swim in the 400 free, posting a 4:02.24 to knock more than 17 seconds off his previous personal best. The 17-year-old is part of a rising group of middle-distance swimmers in the country who is also a good 200 freestyler (PB of 1:53.12) and sprint butterflier (25.17/55.52).
• Croatian 16-year-old Jana Pavalic won the 50 free (26.18) and the 50 fly (27.67).