At the Anadolu Yıldızlar Ligi Seçmesi ve Performans Tespit Yarışları meet in Mersin, Turkey at the end of last month, 13-year-old Atakan Malgil made waves with a new National Age Group Record in the men’s 400m IM.
Splitting 1:02.84/1:13.26/1:22.75/1:03.61, the teen punched the wall in a final time of 4:42.47 for gold in a new lifetime best. His effort outperformed the previous age record for 13-year-olds that stood at 4:50.17 set by Sarpcan Tezel, while Malgil’s mark also surpassed the time standard of 4:43.53 that represents the age record for 14-year-olds.
For perspective, Malgil’s time of 4:42.47 would rank within the top 100 performances ever in the men’s 13-14 age group within the United States, and among the top 15 Americans for just 13-year olds. In the current FINA overall world rankings, the teen sits in the 19th spot. The fastest swim that we could find for an American 13-year old is a 4:37.5 done by Nick Arakelian in 2010 (though we can’t find records of Phelps’ best, and he was 4:24 at 14). You can see Malgil’s results from the Mersin meet last month here.
More recently, Malgil competed at his nation’s Short Course Championships, where he racked up 4 first place finishes. He took the 100m IM in 1:02.01, the 200m IM in 2:11.90, the 400m IM in 4:40.15 and the 200m free in 1:59.27.
The young swimmer is coached by Volkan Burak Tuncil.
Loretta,
I did some digging because my 14 yr old son has a similar time. It seems that the top 100 times of all time on the USA swimming site (Data Hub) is flawed. Based on that list you are correct, his time would be #96 on the list of top 100 13-14 Men all time. But if you do a manual search of the database and choose the dates from 1/1/1900 to today 1/16/2019. His time would be #160 tied with Kendrick Rainer. I point this out not to make light of Malgil’s accomplishments, but to point out that there may be a problem with that top 100 list.
Dang that’s good