2018 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES
- October 6th-18th, 2018
- Swimming Portion: October 7th-12th, 2018
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Schedule/Results
- Entries
Norwegian Tomoe Hvas absolutely obliterated the second of three heats in the men’s 200 IM at day 2 prelims of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, touching in a time of 1:59.77 to become the first Norwegian sub-2:00 in the event.
Prior to this swim, the National Record had stood at 2:01.52 for ten years, as Gard Kvale set the mark at the 2008 Olympic Games. The 18-year-old Hvas slashes two full seconds off his previous best time, coming into the meet with a PB of 2:01.78 from June of 2017.
Below, check out a split comparison of the new and old records:
| Kvale, 2008 Olympic Games | Hvas, 2018 Youth Olympic Games |
| 26.26 | 25.05 |
| 30.98 (57.24) | 30.27 (55.32) |
| 35.50 (1:32.74) | 34.84 (1:30.16) |
| 28.78 (2:01.52 | 29.61 (1:59.77) |
| 2:01.52 | 1:59.77 |
The splits show Hvas was much quicker on the first three legs before giving up close to a second on the freestyle. Given that he was so far ahead in his heat (winning by close to six seconds), and that in his previous best time he closed in 28.16, it looks like he shut it down coming home and has a bit left in the tank to be faster in the final.
He shouldn’t have any trouble winning the gold medal tonight with the rest of the field (qualifiers #2 through #8) all swimming between 2:04.1 and 2:04.5 in the heats.