JERUSALEM, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) — The ninth version of the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships is about to begin on Monday at Israel’s Wingate Institute Olympic swimming pool within the coastal metropolis of Netanya.
The six-day occasion will characteristic over 600 younger swimmers, aged 14 to 18, representing 95 international locations and areas.
The standout competitor is 17-year-old Lana Pudar from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the present senior European champion within the girls’s 200-meter butterfly. Pudar, ranked fourth globally within the 200m butterfly throughout all age teams, clocked two minutes and 6.26 seconds in July on the European Junior Championships in Belgrade. She additionally secured a fourth-place end on the senior World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan later that month.
The high male contender, ranked sixth, is Ukrainian backstroker Oleksandr Zheltiakov, who posted a time of 1:55.79 within the 200m backstroke in Belgrade.
Bulgaria’s freestyle and butterfly swimmer, Petar Mitsin, the one junior world file holder taking part, set a file of three:44.31 within the boys’ 400m freestyle in Belgrade and is anticipated to clinch as much as 5 medals in Netanya.
Other notable feminine contributors embody breaststroker Eneli Jefimova of Estonia, who clinched double gold within the 50m and 100m backstroke sprints on the European Juniors, Leah Hayes of the United States, the 2022 World seniors 200m particular person medley bronze medalist, and Canadian all-rounder Ella Jansen.
For the boys, Flynn Southam from Australia, a member of the victorious crew on the Fukuoka worlds within the 4x100m freestyle relay, and Japan’s Riku Yamaguchi, the one champion from final yr’s juniors in Lima competing in 2023, can be within the highlight after triumphing within the earlier yr’s 400m particular person medley.