Psych Sheets Released for World Junior Championships; Shin Ohashi and Filip Nowacki Set to Duel
The entry lists for next week’s World Junior Championships have been released. The six-day meet will be held in Otopeni, Romania and is an opportunity for rising stars to display their talent on the international stage. The last edition of the meet was held in 2023 in Netanya, Israel, where the likes of Australia’s Flynn Southam and Turkey’s Kuzey Tuncelli excelled on the men’s side. In women’s action, headliners included Aussie Olivia Wunsch and the United States’ Leah Hayes.
Perhaps the most-anticipated events of the meet will be the breaststroke showdowns between Japan’s Shin Ohashi and Great Britain’s Filip Nowacki. Ohashi recently clocked a world junior record in the 200-meter breaststroke, going 2:06.91. Nowacki, meanwhile, has been 2:08.32 over four laps.
Italian Carlos D’Ambrosio is seeded first in the 200 freestyle at 1:45.99 and seeded second in the 100 freestyle, where Great Britain’s Jacob Mills is atop the psych sheets. Mills is entered at 48.03 in the 100 freestyle and is the top seed in the 50 freestyle at 21.96.
On the women’s side, the American triumvirate of Charlotte Crush, Rylee Erisman and Audrey Derivaux are entered in five individual events each and will look to power the United States squad. More, the meet is a final opportunity for American athletes to earn a berth on the Team USA roster that will compete at next year’s Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.
