World Junior Championships, Day 1: Agostina Hein Sets Argentina Record in 400 IM
Agostina Hein of Argentina set the meet and Argentine senior record in the women’s 400 individual medley to win gold at the World Junior Championships Tuesday.
Hein went 4:34.34 to win the race by more than a second. It downs the amazingly long-lived mark set at the 2004 Olympics by Georgina Bardach. That time was a South American record and it earned her bronze in one of the biggest swimming accomplishments in the nation’s history.
Hein looks poised to be the next star for an Argentina program long dormant, coming off a strong Junior Pan Am Games this summer.
All the action from the first finals session in Otopeni, Romania (all finals except where noted):
Men’s 400 freestyle
The first event of the finals turned into a Russian battle. Swimming as Neutral Athletes, Grigorii Vekovishchev bested teammate Egor Babinich by 0.93 seconds to win in 3:46.64. It put a scare into the meet record of 3:46.06 set by Gabor Zombori in 2019.
Vekovishchev was first at every wall from 150 on. Babinich ran third until surging in the fifth 50. He went 3:47.57, holding off by .16 seconds the charge of China’s Xu Haibo, who got bronze. Swimming from Lane 8, Xu was sixth at 350 meters before coming back in 26.93.
The lone American in the field, Aiden Hammer, finished fifth in 3:48.20. He had been second at prelims. He was a spot behind the American-named but Aussie-Born Tex Cross, who went 3:48.17 for fourth. Eighth in the final was Turkey’s Kuzey Tuncelli.
Women’s 50 breaststroke semifinals
American Rachel McAlpin led the way with a time of 30.78 seconds. She was .19 seconds ahead of Ralina Giliazova of the Neutral Athletes, with fellow American Elle Scott third in 31.13. Irene Burato of Italy finished fourth.
Men’s 100 backstroke semifinals
An American was on top here, too, with Gavin Keogh going 53.52 to lead a crowded final eight. His fellow American, Collin Holgerson, missed out in 10th.
John Shortt of Ireland finished second in 53.80. He’ll be joined in the final by swimmers from eight different nationals. Georgii Iakovlev of the Neutral Athletes was third, followed by Aussie Henry Allan. The final eight includes Israeli Aukan Goldin, Trinidadian Liam Carrington and Canadian Parker Deshayes.
Women’s 400 individual medley
Agostina Hein made history, and emphatically so. The Argentine teen went 4:34.34 in the final. That’s exactly 2.5 seconds quicker than the time that Leah Hayes used to set the meet record in 2023, and it put her 1.15 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Amalie Smith. (Not to be confused with Australia’s Amelie Smith – second “a” vs. second “e” – who finished eighth.)
Georgina Bardach’s record is one that Hein has been circling. She was three tenths off in prelims at 4:37.87. She won Junior Pan Ams in 4:38.41, a meet where she took down Virginia Bardach’s national record in the 200 IM.
Smith went 4:35.49. Shuna Sasaki of Japan was third in 4:38.94, keeping the Americans off the podium.
Audrey Derivaux, who was second in prelims, slumped to fourth, undone by a slow first 50 of freestyle that was two full seconds slower than Sasaki and nearly four slower than Smith. Kayla Han finished fifth in 4:41.18, just outtouching Misuzu Nagaoka of Japan. Vivien Jackl of Hungary was seventh.
