WOMEN’S 200M INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – FINAL
- WR: 2:06.12 Katinka Hosszu (HUN) 3 AUG 2015 Kazan (RUS)
- CR 2:12.32 Ruta Meilutyte 29 AUG 2013 (LTU)
- WJ: 2:10.22 Zhou Min (CHN) 17 MAY 2014 Qindao (CHN)
Turkey’s Viktoria Gunes doubled up on gold medals in tonight’s finals session and clocked one new meet record in the process. After topping the podium in the women’s 100m breaststroke, Gunes clinched the victory in the 200m IM event, beating the field with her time of 2:11.03. With her first-place finish, Gunes touched a clear second over the rest of tonight’s field and also crushed the previous meet record held by Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte from the 2013 edition of the World Junior Championships.
Splits for Gunes tonight:
28.64, 35.18, 35.60, 31.61 = 2:11.03
Gunes started out strongly with the fastest fly split, then fell to 5th after the backstroke leg of the medley. Leave it to her amazing breaststroke capabilities to pull her back into the lead, however, splitting a 35.60 on that portion. The next fastest breaststroke split was that of Japan’s Runa Imai, who registered a 36.60, but ultimately finished 5th overall.
Gunes’ time does surpass the official World Junior Record as it stands at FINA, which is the 2:11.46 she registered in Kazan, but it is slower than the yet-to-be-ratified World Junior Record of 2:10.22 by China’s Zhou Min set back in 2014.