Kristof Milak earned Hungary's first individual gold medal in the short history of the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, winning the men's 100m butterfly and setting a new junior world record.
Milak was a part of Hungarian swimming history on the first day of the meet when he anchored the Men's 4x100m freestyle relay to win the first gold medal for the national federation over the 7 editions of the event.
It was not all good news for Milak or his Hungarian teammates. The new world junior champion led off the Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay that was disqualified this evening due to an early start.
Canada continued its brilliance and dominance in the relays at this meet.
The Canadian relay set a new world junior record in the Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, shaving 1,06 seconds off the world junior record set by the relay team in 2015 Singapore that also included Taylor Ruck and Penny Oleksiak.
Championship records were set in three women's events: Rikako Ikee (JPN) in the 50m butterfly, Regan Smith (USA) in the women's 200 backstroke, and Frey Anderson (GBR) in the women's 100m freestyle
Women's 200m Backstroke
Regan Smith of the USA set a new championship record, winning the event in 2:07.45.
More than a second and one half back was her American teammate Alexandra Sumner who covered the distance in 2:09.04. Natsumi Sakai of Japan captured the bronze medal arriving 1.89 behind the new champion.
It was Smith's second gold medal of the championships, she won gold and set a junior world record in the women’s 100-meter backstroke.
Regan Smith (USA)
“I tried to get to bed early last night and do everything to recover the right way,” said Smith about her back-to-back gold-medal performances.
“This morning I was hurting a little bit … I was okay tonight. It felt pretty good, so I was happy with how I was able to do.”
Men's 100m Butterfly
While Hungary's national record holder Kristof Milak did not improve on his own best time, he did set a new world junior record and championship meet record with tonight's winning performance in 51.08.
Russia's Egor Kuimov was a scant .08 of a second behind the Hungarian champion.
Russian teammate Andrei Minakov found his way to a bronze medal in a time of 51.84.
Kristof Milak (HUN)
“Here almost everyone is dying from the exhaustion as it’s a terribly long season with a lot of races. I competed at the junior Europeans, then in Budapest and now here. I mean, I’ve never seen anything similar in my dreams what’s happened to me so far this summer, especially the silver at the Worlds in Budapest. Today the touch-in wasn’t the best. I missed a sub-50 time but still won and people being not so familiar with swimming should see only this fact and not those 0.08seconds between me and the silver medallist. I mean, I ought to have won with a bigger margin, still, the victory counts and let’s forget the rest."
Women's 100m Freestyle
Freye Anderson of Great Britain bettered another championship meet record swimming 53.88 to erase the mark set by Taylor Ruck of Canada set in the 2015 Singapore world juniors meet.
Rikako Ikee of Japan, the top qualifier in tonight's 50m butterfly, claimed the silver medal in a time of 54.16. Kayla Sanchez of Canada earned the bronze medal swimming .56 of a second behind the British champion.
Men's 800m Freestyle
Michael Abruzzo and Michael Brinegar of the USA finished first and third. Abruzzo's winning time of 7:44.58 was 2.23 seconds faster than David Lakatos the silver medalist from Hungary. Brinegar swam 7:57.22, 2.64 seconds behind his USA teammate. Abruzzo also won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle earlier in the event.
Andrew Abruzzo (USA)
“We’re just having so much fun as we’re swimming fast, and I really think that’s been something that’s helped all of us. You’re not thinking about yourself, you’re thinking about what you can do for the team. I think that’s why everyone is swimming well because it’s not about you it’s about everyone and you don’t want to let anyone down.”
Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay
A new junior world record, 3:26.66, for the quartet from Canada. Swimming more than a second faster their winning time of 3:27.71 set at the 2015 Singapore championships. Rusian Gaziev led off the relay in 49.99, the sixth fastest swimmer in the field.
Alexander Pratt held the 6th position splitting 50.95. Once the Canadian women took the water they energized the race. Taylor Ruck swam a 57.72 to move the team into 4th place. The anchor responsibility fell to Penny Oleksiak, and she lead her teammates to the top of the medal stand.
The Canadians have won three of the four relays contested.
Ruck and Oleksiak were members of all three relays, previously winning gold medals in the 4x200m freestyle and mixed 4x100m medley relays.
The team from the USA finished 1.52 seconds behind to claim another relay silver medal behind the champions residing above their northern border. Australia claimed their second bronze medal in a relay following the men's 4x100m freestyle relay on the first day of the meet.
Penny Oleksiak (CAN)
“It’s pretty exciting. Going into the race I was telling the guys that we needed to keep the relay gold streak that we had going. Hopefully for the rest of the meet we can keep getting medals. It’s really fun to get out there and be a part of a mixed relay. To get behind at the 200 and come back to get the gold was really exciting. Hopefully we can get more gold medals.”
Alex Pratt (CAN)
“Being able to accomplish something that big, after having a bad start to the meet, it’s really nice. It was great swimming with my teammates, I did my best to hold my spot and not let them down."
SEMIFINALS
Women's 50m Butterfly (Semifinals)
A new championship record was achieved by Rikako Ikee of Japan, 25.77. The Japanese national record holder (25.48) did not swim faster than the World Junior Record time of 25.48 that she set on April 13th of this year in Nagoya (JPN).
Ikee swam more than one half second faster than her winning time of 26.28 in the 2015 Singapore championships.
Earning the silver medal was Sara Juenvik of Sweden who finished .42 second behind Ikee.
Anastasiya Shkurdai of Belarus claimed the bronze medal swimming .58 of a second behind the event champion.
Men's 50m Freestyle (Semifinals)
Michael Andrew swam to a new junior world record in the morning preliminaries but swam slightly slower in the evening's semifinal. The American's time in the preliminaries would have placed him in a three-way tied for 6th at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Andrew's sprint time of 21.79 was more than one half a second faster than Maxime Grousset of France who posted a time of 22.32.
Alberto Mestre of Venezuela was the third fastest qualifier of the 8 men who will advance to tomorrow's championship final. Women's 100m Breaststroke Semifinals - Faith Nelson was the fastest qualifier swimming 1:07.51 to win the first of two heats in this event.
Mona McSharry of Ireland was the second fastest qualifier in 1:07.79 while Zoe Bartel of the USA was third fastest covering the two laps in 1:08.19.
Men's 50m Backstroke (Semifinals)
Michael Andrew, the fastest qualifier in tonight's 50m freestyle event was back in the pool to clinch the top qualifying time of 24.67. Hugo Gonzalez of Spain and the winner of the 100m backstroke on the first day of the meet, was the second fastest qualifier, swimming 25.40. Daniel Martin was the third fastest swimmer at 25.49. Martin earned a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke.