On Saturday, Canyon Aquatics’ Abbey Weitzeil swam a 24.80 in a time trial to break the 17-18 National Age Group Record in the 50 free. On Sunday evening at the 2014 U.S. National Championships in Irvine, California, Simone Manuel from the First Colony Swim Team lowered that record even further with a 24.56 to win the U.S. National Championship.
The record coming into the weekend for 17-18’s was Kara Lynn Joyce’s 25.00 from 2004, but that was a bit of an asterisked record. That’s because at last year’s World Championships, Manuel was a 24.80 (the same as Weitzeil’s swim) to become the first American 18 & under to go faster than 25 seconds.
She was technically 17 when she did that swim, but her birthday happened during the World Championships, so she was locked in as a 16-year old, for swimming purposes, at that meet.
None-the-less, Manuel now holds both the 15-16 and 17-18 records. Manuel is not eligible for the Junior World Record in this race, because she turns 18 prior to the end of the year. Girls’ records must be broken by swimmers who are 17 at the end of the calendar year. That record currently belongs to Russia’s Rozaliya Nasretdinova in 24.95 (Manuel swam her 24.80 before FINA was recognizing records).
No problem with Age as at End of year for competition purposes (whichever way its done someone could be 364 days older or younger than another competitor) but junior records should be age as at date of swim
Congrats Simone. Just the beginning of an amazing career.
USA has finally found a world-class sprinter.
Rio : sub 53 in the 100 free and sub 24 in the 50 free!
Wouldn’t abbey hold the jr world record?
Record? – no, Abbey turns 18 before the end of the year as well.
and the junior world record criteria remain incredibly stupid. using a swimmer’s age at the end of a calendar year rather than their actual age at the time of the swim (or the start of the meet) is a needless complication that discriminates against certain swimmers whose birthdays fall at the beginning of a calendar year.
i mean, who do they think they are, USA masters swimming?
Similar ‘problem’ with the commonwealth youth games where it is your age at the end of the year. Really do not see the sense in it!