7TH FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019
- 50-Meter Course
- Duna Arena, Budapest (Hungary)
- Pool swimming: Tuesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 25, 2019
- Heats 9:30am GMT+2 (3:30 am EDT / 12:30 am PDT)/ Semifinals and Finals 5:30pm GMT+2 (11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT)
- Meet site
- Entries book
- FinaTV Live Stream (subscription required)
- Live results
16-year-old Franko Grgic of Croatia raced his way to gold in the men’s 800m freestyle in Budapest tonight, taking the World Junior Championships title in a new lifetime best of 7:45.92.
The teen led the field wire-to-wire, keeping a relatively comfortable advantage over Ilia Sibirtsev of Russia and Thomas Neill of Australia, both of whom also landed on the podium in silver and bronze, respectively. Sibertsev touched in 7:48.05 to Neill’s 7:48.65. Neill already earned 400m free silver on night 1 here in Budapest.
For Grgic, the teen’s previous career-fastest in this 800m free rested at the 7:53.75 he posted in Zagreb this past March. Tonight the Croatian hacked about 8 seconds off of that mark to produce the first sub-7:50 outing of his career, overtaking the previous National Record of 7:51.78 held by Marin Mogic since last year’s European Championships. Mogic finished 8th in that final in Glasgow.
Splits for Mogic’s old record of 7:51.78 from 2018:
Splits for Grgic’s new record of 7:45.92 from tonight:
Grgic already holds the Croatian National Record in the men’s 1500m free, having rocked a lifetime best of 14:56.55 at the Croatian Team Championships this past March. Later this summer Grgic took the 400m free and 1500m free European Youth Olympic Festival gold medals in respective efforts of 3:52.10 and 15:04.75.
At just 16, Grgic now checks-in as the 25th fastest performer all-time, any age, in this 800m freestyle. His mark tonight fell just .25 shy of Mack Horton’s time of 7:45.67 established back in 2013, before World Junior Records became official.
No comments for such a swimming beauty???
Grgic is the most amazing talent watched at these Champs.
He sure is Nuoto. Such a mature racer.
Also, when he walked out on deck before the race, did you see the infectious smile & exuberance on his face? And he was THIS close to Mack Horton’s record too. He’s got at least one more JWC crack at it in two years.