Ilya Borodin Smashes 400 IM World Junior Record To Become 3rd Best Ever

2021 FINA SHORT COURSE SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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In shades of the 2019 FINA Long Course World Championships, IM extraordinaire Daiya Seto of Japan was nearly chased down in the last 25m of the 400m distance.

Competing in the men’s 400m IM final tonight, Seto in fact wound up on top of the podium, touching in a super solid result of 3:56.26. However, Russian Swimming Federation youngster Ilya Borodin nearly overtook the father of two, getting to the wall just .21 later in 3:56.47.

Also in the mix was American racer Carson Foster, with the Texas Longhorn grabbing bronze in 3:57.99.

For 18-year-old Borodin, the teen just put up the best swim of his life, scoring a new World Junior Record and European Junior Record for his efforts, in addition to a Russian national record.

The previous WJR stood at the 3:59.15 Seto himself put on the books in 2012 while the EJR was represented by Borodin’s own 3:58.83 logged just last month. His first sub-4:00 outing there in Kazan rendered Borodin as the 2021 European Short Course champion in the event.

A split comparison between tonight’s performance and that of last month is below:

The Russian teenager has now become the #3 performer all-time in this short course 400m IM, sitting only behind World Record-owning Seto and American Olympian Ryan Lochte. Of note, Foster also checks in as the 8th fastest man ever in this event.

All-Time Men’s Short Course 400 IM Performers:

1. Daiya Seto (JPN), 3:54.81 2019
2. Ryan Lochte (USA), 3:55.50, 2010
3. Ilya Borodin (RSF), 3:56.47 2021
4. Laszlo Cseh (HUN), 3:57.27 2009
5. Ous Mellouli (TUN), 3:57.40 2010

Borodin is on a big-time upward trajectory with Paris 2024 fewer than 3 years away. After taking silver in this 400m IM at both the 2019 World Junior and European Junior Championships, he’s making a big dent on the senior circuit. He took both the aforementioned European Short course title as well as the European Long Course title and now has this Worlds silver added to his resume.