Filip Nowacki Shatters World Juniors Championship Record in 200 Breast with 2:07.32 for Gold

2025 World Junior Swimming Championships

• August 19-24, 2025
• Otopeni, Romania
• LCM (50 meters)
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  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Following his victory in the 100 breaststroke on night 2 of the Championships, all eyes were on Great Britain’s Filip Nowacki for the final of the boy’s 200 breaststroke at the 2025 World Junior Swimming Championships. Under pressure, Nowacki exceeded expectations, dropping a huge time of 2:07.32 for the victory in a new Championship Record and European Junior Record.

Notably, Nowacki’s time would’ve taken home gold at the 2025 World Championships last month, where China’s Qin Haiyang posted a time of 2:07.41 to stand atop the podium. In addition to that, Nowacki took down recently-minted World Junior Record holder Shin Ohashi in a head-to-head match-up for the second time this week with his performance after coming out on top of the battle in the 100 breaststroke as well. Ohaski was the heavy favorite to take home the 200 breast gold following his WJR-breaking last month, where he posted a 2:06.91 at the Japanese High School Championships.

While Ohaski’s time still stands as the fastest in the world this season, Nowacki now stands as the 3rd fastest performer in the world and his country’s fastest swimmer in the event by over 2 seconds.

Nowacki’s swim also stands as one of the fastest in Great Britian’s history, falling only .02 short of Ross Murdoch‘s mark of 2:07.30 from the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Born October 1, 2007, Nowacki would’ve only been 6-years-old when Murdoch set that time. Nowacki’s time also takes down his own British Age Record for 17-year-olds, demolishing his own time of 2:08.32 from the European Junior Championships last month. In terms of junior swimmers, his mark stands as the 3rd-fastest performance of all-time, only behind Ohashi’s WJR and Akihiro Yamaguchi‘s previous WJR of 2:07.01.

Top 5 British Men’s LCM 200 Breaststroke Performers All-Time:

1. Ross Murdoch – 2:07.30 (2014)
2. Filip Nowacki – 2:07.32 (2025)
3. Michael Jamieson – 2:07.43 (2012)
4. James Wilby – 2:07.49 (2019)
5. Andrew Willis – 2:07.73 (2016)

Boys’ 200 Breaststroke Junior All-Time Top 10 Rankings:

1. Shin Ohashi (JPN) — 2:06.91 (2025)
2. Akihiro Yamaguchi (JPN) – 2:07.01 (2012)
3. Filip Nowacki (GBR) – 2:07.32 (2025)*
4. Qin Haiyang (CHN) – 2:07.35 (2017)
5. Dong Zhihao (CHN) – 2:08.04 (2023)
6. Shoma Sato (JPN) – 2:09.21 (2019)
7. Josh Matheny (USA) – 2:09.40 (2019)
8. Anton Chupkov (RUS) – 2:09.64 (2015)
9. Gabe Nunziata (USA) — 2:09.71 (2025)
10. Daniel Roy (USA) – 2:09.73 (2018)

In 2025, Nowacki has been on-fire across all three breaststroke distances. He started the year with a best time of 2:12.74 in the 200 breast before dropping it down to a 2:11.09 at the British World Championship Trials in April. Though that time wasn’t good enough to land him on the World Championship team, Nowacki took full advantage of his opportunity to represent his country at the European Junior Championships, slicing his best time down to 2:08.32 en route to gold in the 200 breast. He also won gold in the 100 breast with a huge personal best and British Age Record of 59.96, becoming just the 5th 17-and-under swimmer in history to break the 1:00 barrier  (a time he lowered en route to gold at World Juniors). Nowacki added a silver in the 50 breaststroke at the European Juniors meet with an additional Brisith Age Record-breaking performance (27.61). He’ll have another opportunity to improve upon it now, as the 50 breast remains the last individual event on his World Juniors schedule with prelims slated to kick-off on Saturday.