2025 World Junior Swimming Championships
- August 19-24, 2025
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
The first night of finals at the 2025 World Junior Championships featured outstanding swims from many stars including Agostina Hein, Filip Nowacki, Charlotte Crush, and Grigorii Vekovishchev, among others. However, SwimSwam wants to highlight a few performances that may have gone under the radar and weren’t discussed in significant detail in our full session live recap.
Without further ado…
- Liam Carrington of Trinidad and Tobago had a breakthrough in the boys’ 100 backstroke. The NC State commit and member of the high school class of 2026, who swims with the Bolles School Sharks in Jacksonville, Florida, entered the morning with a lifetime best of 55.32 from the Carifta Aquatic Championship in late April. Despite coming off a 55.78 at senior Worlds last month, Carrington popped 55.04 in prelims to register a new best time. The swim moved him from 13th seed to 8th place heading into semifinals. The 17-year-old then sliced off another half second for 54.54 in the semifinals, advancing to tomorrow’s final as the 7th seed.
- Great Britain’s Theodora Taylor, known for having a Kate Douglass-esque range of event capabilities, had a strong showing in the girls’ 50 breaststroke. The 16-year-old put her hands on the wall in 31.23 in prelims before nearly replicating the time in semifinals with a 31.27. Prior to today, she had broken the 32-second barrier only once, at the Aquatic GB Championships in April, where she recorded her previous best of 31.53.
- Max Morgan joined British teammate Taylor in notching a breaststroke personal best. While Nowacki was the clear headliner in the event, 17-year-old Morgan dipped under the elusive one-minute threshold for the first time in his career, clocking 59.93 to move through to the final seeded 4th. His previous best entering this competition was the 1:00.10 he produced to take silver at the Aquatic GB Championships in April.
- Team USA’s Aiden Hammer, 18, clocked 3:48.20 en route to taking 5th overall in the boys’ 400 freestyle. The Texas commit demolished his previous personal best of 3:49.20 in the process and was just 0.47 shy of the bronze medal. His previous best came from U.S. Nationals in June, where he touched 10th.
- Just like Hammer, Australian Tex Cross showcased a similar time drop in the event. The 18-year-old entered the day with a career best of 3:49.81 but swam 3:48.17 to take 4th in the final, only his second time under 3:50. Cross was in medal position through the first 350 meters of the race but was unable to hold off a fast-charging Xu Haibu. The Chinese swimmer threw down 26.93 on the final 50 to Cross’ 28.83, edging ahead by a few tenths for the final podium spot.
