The six-day competition welcomes almost 900 athletes representing 121 National Federations to the Otopeni Olympic Swimming Comple, with the Men’s 400m Freestyle opening this evening’s action.

Men’s 400m Freestyle

The opening race of the evening saw Grigorii Vekovishchev (NAB) earn the first gold medal of these championships. A brave start from the 17-year-old saw him take the race out hard, leading comfortably by almost a body length at the half-way point.

Well, I am very happy that I managed to race in this way! I didn’t expect that I would be so fast in the first 200 meters, I thought that I would be working for the second 200 meters," said Vekovishchev. But it worked, I swam nearly at maximum and hardly swam the last 50 meters. Very good time!"

Fellow neutral athlete, Egor Babinich - who was the fastest qualifier from this morning’s heats - closed the gap in the second half of the race, resulting in a battle for the podium’s top spot. It was Vekovishchev who got his hands on the wall first, touching in a huge personal best of 3:46.64 (previous best of 3:48.71). The podium was completed by Babinich (3:47.57) and People’s Republic of China’s, Xu Haibo, in 3:47.73.

Agostina Hein Shines

A stacked field in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley delivered the first record-breaking swim of the night. Argentina’s Agostina Hein finished in top spot after qualifying fastest in the heats, winning gold in a new Championship Record time of 4:34.34.

The South American’s time was also a new national and South American record, shattering the previous best of 4:37.51. The Paris Olympian said of her race: “I'm so very happy for my time. I'm training a lot for this time and I'm so happy that I have broken the South American Record.”

After posting a time of 4:37.87 this morning (which was a PB in itself), Hein had her sights set on the record and gold tonight. “In the morning, I saw that I was close to the South American record and now I have broken [it]. I have been training a lot, my training has been hard but I love racing with the other girls.”

The 17-year-old’s gold takes her number of World Junior medals to two, adding to the bronze she won in the 800m Freestyle at the 2023 edition of the event. She extended thanks to her coach, Sebastian Montero, and support network: “I want to thank my family, my team for supporting me. I am so, so happy.”

Great Britain’s Amalie Smith and Japan’s Shuna Sasaki completed the podium, winning silver and bronze, respectively. Smith charged down the final 50m of the breaststroke leg to put herself well in the race for medals, smashing her PB by 1.5 seconds to touch in 4:35.49. A blistering freestyle leg from Sasaki secured her spot on the podium, shaving almost five seconds off her PB with a time of 4:38.94.

World Junior and Championship Record - Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay

The penultimate race delivered the first World Junior Record of the meet in the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay with the Neutral Athletes B team posting a new world-leading time of 3:15.38.

The team, who all train in different cities and had never previously raced as a relay team together, said after their win: “To win, this is an amazing feeling," said relay member Georgi Zlotnikov. "I didn't expect a World Junior Record. I expected that we could be on the medal podium, but we won, and this is crazy. I have no words.” 

Team member Egor Proshin added, “My team's just amazing. We won a gold medal and also captured the junior record. This is so cool.” The team’s takeover starts were an obvious strength throughout the race, allowing them to gain territory on the rest of the field each time. Mikhail Shcherbakov explained, “We have never swum together as a relay, but we practised relay starts. We spent a lot of time on our starts.”

Close Battle in the Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay

A battle in the Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay saw People’s Republic of China take their first gold of the event in a time of 7:51.59, just 0.12 off the World Junior Record set by Canada in 2017. They held off a strong USA side who finished just behind in 7:52.82, while bronze went to the team from Italy in 7:56.86.

Speaking after their win, they said: “It was very exciting. It was a very close race until the very end. We are so happy to win. We want to say thank you to our coaches and to our fans. China are the champions.”

Semi-Finals

The first semi-finals of the evening saw two athletes dip under the 31-second mark in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke. USA’s Rachel Mcalpin and Ralina Giliazova (NAB) were the fastest two qualifiers into tomorrow's final, posting 30.78 and 30.97, respectively. Elle Delon Scott (USA) joins her countrymate to complete the top-three seeded athletes (31.13).

Also forming part of tomorrow’s finals session will be the Men’s 100m Backstroke; top seeds = Gavin Keogh (USA), John Shortt (IRE), Georgii Iakovlev (NAB) and the Women’s 100m Backstroke; top seeds = Charlotte Crush (USA), Daria-Mariuca Silisteanu (ROU), Madison Kryger (CAN).

Current World Junior Record holder, Shin Ohashi of Japan, will be in action in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke and goes into the final as the second-seeded athlete behind Great Britain’s Filip Nowacki.

The Aquatics Complex in Otopeni will play host to the event until Sunday, August 24th, at which point the top male and female athletes, as well as the top teams, will be rewarded based on points they’ve accumulated throughout the week.

Contributing: Gregory Eggert