Yu Yiting Takes Down 200 IM World Junior Record, Ye Shiwen’s CHN Record

2021 FINA SHORT COURSE SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The women’s 200m IM saw a World Junior Record fall at the hands of 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Yiting.

Yu fired off a time of 2:04.48 to grab silver behind winner Sydney Pickrem of Canada. Pickrem edged out Yu by just .19 to snag the gold while American Kate Douglass earned bronze in 2:04.68 in the tight race.

For Yu, her 2:04.48 here overtakes the previous WJR of 2:04.64 Canadian Kayla Sanchez established in 2018. In her race 3 years ago, Sanchez was 1:00.00 on the front half while Yu checked in much quicker at 58.53. That means Sanchez closed in 1:04.65 while Yu’s back half included a split of 1:05.95.

Yu was 2:06.48 in the heats, a time which already represented the teen’s personal best in this 2IM event.

Yu’s 2:04.48 not only established a new WJR but it also now represents a Chinese national record. The previous national standard stood at the 2:04.64 Olympic medalist Ye Shiwen put on the books in 2012.

As such, Yu is now the #2 Asian performer of all-time, sitting only behind Olympic champion Yui Ohashi of Japan. Ohashi owns the Asian record at 2:03.93. Of all the performers across all continents, Yu is now the 6th fastest in history at just 16 years of age.

In This Story

1
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Big Mac #1
2 years ago

Impressive, clearly there are some excellent Chinese youngsters

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

Read More »