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17-Year-Old Miroslav Knedla Breaks His Own Czech Record in 200 IM Again (2:00.26)

2023 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Czech teen Miroslav Knedla broke his own national record in the 200 IM for the second time in two days with a personal-best 2:00.26 at the European Junior Championships on Thursday night.

The 17-year-old backstroke specialist shaved a few tenths off his previous-best 2:00.57 from Wednesday’s semifinals, which came on the back half of a double featuring a 50 back win (24.88, just off his national-record 24.75 from May). Before this meet, Knedla’s lifetime best was a 2:01.28 from April’s Stockholm Open.

Knedla’s National Records, Splits Comparison

200 IM splits 2023 Euro Juniors final 2023 Euro Juniors semifinals 2023 Stockholm Open
50 fly 25.54 25.71 25.68
50 back 55,54 56.38 56.26
50 breast 1:31.55 1:31.94 1:32.49
50 free 2:00.26 2:00.57 2:01.28

Knedla split 30.00 on the backstroke leg this time around, which is where most of his time drop came from. Before he first broke the national record in April, Jakub Bursa held the mark with a 2:01.69 from the 2021 European Junior Championships.

Knedla’s improvement in the event over the past year has been remarkable. He didn’t even swim the 200 IM at last year’s European Junior championships, placing 5th in both the 50 back (25.39) and 100 back (55.17). But his 2:01.28 from April took more than four seconds off his previous-best 2:05.35 from last May’s Mare Nostrum tour. With his new personal-best 2:00.26, he would now rank 16th in the U.S. 17-18 boys’ national age group (NAG) rankings, for reference.

BOYS 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – FINAL

  • World Junior Record: 1:56.99, Hubert Kos (2021)
  • European Junior Record: 1:56.99, Hubert Kos (2021)
  • European Record: 1:55.18, Laszlo Cseh (2009)
  • Championship Record: 1:59.17, Tom Dean (2018)
  • 2022 European Junior Champion: Sanberk Yigit Oktar (Turkey), 2:00.68

PODIUM:

Italy’s Christian Mantegazza was about a second behind Knedla with a 2:01.10, four-tenths off his best time (2:00.70) from April. Great Britain’s Matthew Ward also set a new lifetime best with third-place finish in 2:01.17, taking almost a second off his previous-best 2:01.94 from the British World Championship Trials in April.

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Hoosier
1 year ago

Go hoosiers

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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