This past Thursday at the Southern California Junior Olympics in Riverside, California, Justina Kozan broke Cynthia Woodhead’s 40 year old Southern California Swimming record in the 200 freestyle.
The 12 year old crushed the competition with a time of 2:05.63, beating out Woodhead’s record of 2:05.80. Despite the amazing swim, she still missed the National Age Group record by over two seconds. Dee Brown set the National Age Group record in 1991 with a time of 2:03.38, making it one of the oldest NAG records in the books.
Representing BREA Aquatics, Kozan also finished first in the 50 butterfly, 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle, and 200 IM this weekend. Full results can be found on the Meet Mobile App under “2016 CA RAA Summer JO Champs”.
Woodhead’s legacy far surpassed this Southern California Swimming record– by the age of 14 she was a three time world champion. She was a favorite in multiple events going into the boycotted 1980 Olympic Games, and went on to win silver in the 200 freestyle at the 1984 Olympics. Woodhead was actually present when her record was broken; her own children were swimming alongside Justina Kozan at the Riverside Aquatics Complex.
I believe the NAG record by Dee Brown was set in 1991, not 1981.
That’s correct. Updated.
Congrats. When you break a record owned by the legendary Sippy Woodhead you know you have done something special.
I would like to see Justina Kozan swim against 11-year-old Claire Tuggle from California too. It would be explosive and times would drop to maybe a new NAG record.
US women’s future on freestyle looks bright with all these young talents.
Yes, the women’s freestyle future is great, but only if they grow to be taller than the Aussies!
Vive LePen!
Bobo
Check the times of 11yr old Elan Daley from Markham AC.
29.59 50 Fly
1:06.91 100 Fly
27.07 50 Free
1:01.24 100 Free
to name a few swims.
Look up Canadian Age Group Championships on meet mobile.
Congrats Justina and the Kozan family! Justina’s younger sister Asia is also dominating the 10 yr old age group in socal. Looking forward to seeing great thing from you girls. Go BREA!
This is tremendous.
Both Justina Kozan and Leah Hayes will be vying for that 4×200 alternate spot for 2020 Tokyo.