An internal memo sent to FINA has finally established the official opening of the Junior World Record time frame, and from April 1, 2014, FINA will begin accepting swims to break these newly-created set of World Records. This means that Russian Evgeny Sedov will be the last name added to the list of “swimmers faster than the World Record but who don’t have the World Record” after his 50 free and 50 fly swims last weekend.
It also means that Australia’s Mack Horton will be the first added to the list after a 3:44.60 at the Australian National Championships on Tuesday.
That will break his own “Junior World Record” of 3:47.12 set at last year’s Junior World Championships. FINA decided earlier this year that they would use those Junior World Championship Records to establish the first Junior World Records, even though many are not the fastest ever swum by a junior swimmer.
Of course, this all ignores the fact that the great Australian Ian Thorpe was a 3:40.17 in 2001 as an 18-year old, meaning Horton has the World but not the National Record in the event. That lingering cloud, unlikely to be touched anytime soon, has left many fans and our readers to roll their collective eyes at the “Junior World Records” for now.
Great pic- dude looks like Where’s Waldo!! Just needs the red and white sweater/cap outfit to complete the look.
Horton’s great, but I agree w/ everybody– I think we got a consensus here.
The only thing I can think of is that new records have to go through a process to be recognized and maybe they are too lazy to go back and research if all the pools got measured, right number of timers/officials, blah blah blah. I say they go back and validate the ones they can–otherwise their record book is going to be a total joke.
Most of the Real WR.. were ou ARE the Adult WR.. so they are ratified.. or where times on OG/Worlds.
I think the only “Junior” WR that were not made on Worlds/OG is the new ones from Sedov and the 100 free from Mcevoy..
I missed one,
Jordon Harrison was 3:45.85 at 17 years last year.
Of course I agree with the junior records being wrong, but I’d like to look at Horton’s swim in context. I think you have to remove a comparison to Thorpe’s times because they are that good and he only improved his 17 yo time by 0.5 secs later in is career. I’ve only looked at Australian and US records for comparison, but there are some decent names in there so it’s worthy of dicussion
Australian 17 rankings:
Thorpe 3:40.59 (WR at the time)
Horton 3:44.60
Hackett 3:46.44 (that swim was a silver medal at ’98 Worlds)
Australian 18 rankings:
Thorpe 3:40.17 (WR at the time)
(Horton 3:44.60)
Hackett 3:44.88
Perkins 3:45.16
USA 17-18… Read more »
At 17 yo, Park Tae Hwan swam 3:44.30 in 2007 Melbourne.
Indeed Mack Horton is in very fine company (and I do think he will improve even more in the years to come), but that should not make his 3:44.60 the junior world record.
That really frustrates me. Thorpe’s 17 and18 year old times are untouchable, and should be recognized as such
Uh, April fools? This one isn’t nearly as good as the Canadian one.
Totally agree with all the above comments. The boys 200-400-800 free junior world records should be the times Thorpe swam in 2001 Fukuoka.
While the 200 fly junior world record should be the time Phelps swam in 2003 Barcelona.
And girls 400-800-1500 junior world records should be the times Ledecky swam in 2013 Barcelona.
It’s not like they’d swum in Baltimore age open or North Sydney age regional or some little local meet. All those events were FINA’s own WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS ffs! and they were ALL drug tested after their EACH winning swim!
So what’s the problem FINA????
I made a little check.. seems like NONE of the WR are the real WR! Not Even ONE (Except relays)
FINA, like IAAF, use 31 December cut-off, so we can’t use Thorpe’s 2001 records. It should be Thorpe’s time in 2000’s OG (as he’s born in 1982).
But I agree with all of the comments. Why can’t FINA use that records, as those times were made in WC or OG. There’s no problem with the pool, the doping test, etc. It’s a joke if we use another slower record that only made in a national championships.
It’s ridiculous that they don’t count thorpes time as the record
I still think this is silly, FINA has a large enough database to retrieve the REAL fastest junior times ever (Gyurta, Phelps, Thorpe)
Many are not the fastest ever.
Is any of the “world records” the fastest ever swum? Except from the relays..