2023 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 4th – Sunday, July 9th
- Sports and Recreational Center “Milan Gale Muškatirović”, Belgrade, Serbia
- Prelims at 10am local (4am EDT)/Finals at 5pm local (11am EDT)
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
- Livestream
- Day 1 Prelims Recap |Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
An Irish national record went down at the hands of John Shortt this morning during prelims on day three of the 2023 European Junior Championships.
Racing in the heats of the boys’ 200m backstroke, 16-year-old Shortt put up a time of 1:58.65 to land lane 4 for tonight’s semi-final. That outing represented the teen’s first-ever foray under the 1:59 threshold and it also overtook the previous Irish national standard.
Splits for Shortt’s new record included 58.34/1:00.31.
Entering this competition, Shortt’s career-quickest rested at the 1:59.23 he clocked en route to taking the 200m backstroke title at April’s Irish Championships. Prior to that result, Shortt’s PB sat at the 2:00.97 produced at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet in March, so the ace is on the right trajectory with the inaugural U23 Championships on the horizon.
As for the previous Irish national record, that longstanding mark stood at the 1:58.80 Conor Ferguson put on the books 6 years ago at the 2017 Irish Championships.
Shortt was slightly slower in tonight’s semi-final, registering a time of 1:59.08 to claim the 4th seed. The top swimmer was last year’s Euro Jrs silver medalist Oleksandr Zheltyakov who notched a 1:56.49 stunner to stake his claim on the event. That also scored a new Ukrainian national record for the teen.