Tennessee’s Mizuki Hirai Registers 25.95 50 Backstroke World Junior Record

67th JAPANESE SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, October 18th & Sunday, October 19th
• Tokyo Aquatics Center
• SCM (25m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Entries
• Results

Day one of the 67th Japanese Short Course Championships transpired today from the Tokyo Aquatics Center, with a new World Junior Record going down.

Racing in the final of the women’s 50m backstroke, 18-year-old Mizuki Hirai fired off a time of 25.95 to reap gold and establish the new benchmark.

Entering this competition, the University of Tennessee athlete’s best-ever performance rested at the 26.23 put up in the heats of the event at last year’s Short Course World Championships. There in Budapest, Hirai ultimately finished in 9th place in a time of 26.26.

The former 50m back World Junior Record checked in at the 26.08 Italian teenager Sara Curtis established at a domestic competition last year.

The previous Japanese national record sat at the 26.05 Aya Terakawa put on the books over a decade ago at the 2013 edition of this competition. That means Hirai now becomes Japan’s first-ever woman to dip under the 26-second barrier.

Hirai recently raced at the Australian Short Course Championships, with her victory in the 50m back hitting a time of 26.39, a then-near lifetime best.