2020 TURKISH SHORT COURSE C’SHIPS
- Sunday, December 20th – Thursday, December 24th
- Istanbul, Turkey
- SCM (25m)
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
- Live Results
The 5th and final day of the 2020 Turkish Short Course Championships saw the women’s 400m freestyle record go down at the hands of 16-year-old Beril Bocekler.
The UCLA-commit already nailed the 800m free victory in a new record-setting mark earlier in the meet, but still saved a powerful swim for this 4free. She stopped the clock in a lifetime best of 4:02.77, crushing her own previous Turkish standard of 4:06.38 she produced at this meet last year.
She had to fight for the win, as 15-year-old Merve Tuncel, the newly-minuted World Junior Record holder in the 1500m free, rushed to the wall-less than half a second later. Tuncel touched in 4:03.10 to become Turkey’s second-best performer in history.
Splits for the pair reveal Bocekler taking the lead by the 100m mark, but Tuncel never trailed more than a fingernail behind. While Bocekler’s time tonight shaved well over 3 seconds off of her aforementioned PB, Tuncel’s time from last year rested at a 4:09.30, showing once again the massive time drops with which this up-and-comer arms herself going into virtually every swim.
Bocekler and Tuncel sit just outside the world’s top 20 performers this season.