China’s Qin Haiyang Lowers 200 IM Junior World Record To 1:57.06

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

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China’s Qin Haiyang has lowered his own junior world record in the 200 IM, going 1:57.06 to take 6th in the World Champs final.

Though results showed Qin breaking the record in heats and semifinals, the record listed was inaccurate. Results showed the old record, a 1:59.12 done by American Michael Andrew in March. But Qin actually broke that record in April at the Chinese National Championships, going 1:57.54. The ratification process on junior world records is often slow, and new records may not be reflected in official FINA record books or results for months. But Qin’s new mark should pass all ratifications easily, as it came at the World Championships.

In heats, Qin was 1:59.01 and in semifinals 1:57.81.

In finals, Qin went 1:57.06 to take a half-second off his old mark. He’s still not the fastest junior in history though – that title belongs to Michael Phelps, who was 1:55.94 at age 18. However, FINA didn’t start compiling junior world records until 2013, and didn’t use older times in setting the new records. Qin is eligible to continue lowering this record through the end of 2017.

Here’s a quick splits comparison between Qin’s new and old records:

In Budapest, Qin set a quicker early pace, trying to keep up with the early leaders in the middle of the pool. His freestyle split wasn’t quite as good as his previous swim, but all three stroke splits were faster, including four tenths of a second on the breaststroke.