Jonas Gaur of Denmark made his presence known big-time at the 2023 European Junior Championships which just concluded last night in Belgrade, Serbia.
The 18-year-old took gold in the boys’ 50m breaststroke in a time of 27.57 and also topped the boys’ 100m breaststroke event in a result of 1:01.78. Both outings represented the teen’s best-ever outings, overtaking his previous personal bests of 27.85 and 1:02.39, respectively.
Gaur also put up a swift split of 1:01.98 on the boys’ 4x100m medley relay to help his nation score silver in that final event of the entire competition. Denmark fell just .04 shy of gold in the race but Gaur’s split represented the sole sub-1:02 leg of the field.
Just before the European Junior Championships, however, Gaur put up an impressive performance in the short course meters format.
Competing at the Holstebro Svomme Club’s Record Meet on June 26th, Gaur clocked a new Danish Junior Record in the boys’ 100 breaststroke.
Gaur produced a time of 58.25 to surpass the longstanding Danish Junior Record of 59.23 Tobias Bjerg put on the books in 2015.
Splitting 27.03/31.22, Gaur also bested the previous Nordic Junior Record, a time which stood at the 58.83 Sweden’s Johannes Skagius logged over a decade ago.
Entering the club meet, Gaur’s lifetime best in the SCM 100 breast rested at the 59.42 he logged at the 2022 Danish Junior Short Course Championships. That means in just a matter of months the teen managed to hack over a second off his previous career-quickest en route to logging the 58.25 junior record.
