2024 Short Course World Championships
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
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Italian teenager Sara Curtis lowered her own World Junior Record during the semi-finals of the women’s 50 backstroke on Day 3 of the 2024 Short Course World Championships in Budapest, producing a time of 26.03.
The 18-year-old broke both the World Junior and Italian National Record with the swim, having set the previous mark of 26.08 back in April.
Although Curtis is the official owner of the World Junior Record in the event, the fastest-ever junior in the event is Australian Mollie O’Callaghan, who clocked 25.49 at the 2022 Short Course World Championships in Melbourne.
O’Callaghan was 18 at the time, but World Aquatics had yet to expand the female age range up to 18 for World Junior Records, which came in early 2023.
Belarusian Anastasiya Shkurdai had also previously been under Curtis’ World Junior Record at the age of 18, going 26.05 in 2021.
Prior to Curtis breaking it in April, the official record previously stood at 26.13, set by American Olivia Smoliga in 2012.
Curtis qualified for tomorrow’s final in fifth, trailing two Americans and two Canadians. The U.S. duo of Katharine Berkoff (25.51) and Regan Smith (25.66) lead the field, while Canada’s Ingrid Wilm (25.81) and Kylie Masse (25.98) sit third and fourth.
Curtis has been busy thus far in Budapest, having placed 15th in the semis of the women’s 100 free (52.80) and producing a pair of 51-point splits for the Italian women on the 4×100 free relay, where they ultimately finished fifth.
Curtis won four medals at the 2022 World Junior Championships in Lima, including individual silver in the 50 free and bronze in the 50 back, and she is a six-time gold medalist at the European Junior Championships, including winning three individual golds this past summer in the 50 free, 100 free and 50 back.
She made her Olympic debut this past summer in Paris, placing 14th in the women’s 50 free and swimming on the Italian women’s 4×100 free relay that finished eighth.
