2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
Chinese swimmer Yang Junxuan took another half-a-second off her own World Junior Record in the women’s 200 free final on Wednesday in Gwangju. In finishing 6th, she swam a 1:55.43, which broke the 1:55.99 that she set in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
For the 17-year old, who turns 18 in January, she took in total almost a second-and-a-half off her lifetime best of 1:56.90 coming into the meet. All of this added up to break the old record of 1:56.12 that belonged to fellow Chinese swimmer Shen Duo set at the 2014 Youth Olympics.
Comparative Splits:
| Yang Juxan | Yang Juxan | |
| Semi-Finals | Finals | |
| 1st 50 | 27.26 | 27.00 |
| 2nd 50 | 29.6 | 29.54 |
| 3rd 50 | 29.57 | 29.61 |
| 4th 50 | 29.56 | 29.28 |
| Total Time | 1:55.99 | 1:55.43 |
Unofficially, the fastest time that we know of for an age-eligible swimmer is Missy Franklin’s 1:55.06 that was done at the 2011 World Championships on a relay leadoff when she was just 16. That, however, was before FINA began recognizing World Junior Records, and as such was never ‘officially’ ratified.
Yang was the youngest swimmer to even make the semi-finals by more than a year-and-a-half, let alone the final.