2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
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Grigorii Vekovishchev got night one of the World Junior Championships off to a fast start in Otopeni, taking down a national record in the very first event of the evening.
Vekovishchev, who is representing Neutral Athletes ‘B’ at the competition, set a new Russian junior record in the 400 free en route to winning the event. He charged into the wall in 3:46.64, lowering the record by .72 and knocking over two seconds off of his lifetime best (3:48.71), which he set just recently at the LEN European Junior Championships in July.
The record previously stood at 3:47.36, set by Alexander Egorov back in 2019.
Vekovishchev had built a significant lead at the halfway point of the race, splitting 1:51.53 at the 200 mark to put himself a body length ahead of the rest of the field. There was nearly a second separating him and Australia’s Tex Cross, who flipped 2nd in 1:52.36.
Vekovishchev managed to hold onto his lead through the second half, coming home in 1:55.11 to clinch the championship title by .93. He was the only one in the field under 3:47, as fellow NAB athlete Egor Babinich claimed the runner-up spot in 3:47.57.
Vekovishchev’s opening 200 tonight was significantly quicker than his performance last month, as he took it out almost three seconds faster, giving him the boost he needed to break the Russian junior record despite having a slightly slower back half.
He is set to compete in the 800 free and 200 fly later this week.
