The Vortex - August 2025: At 12, Yu Zidi, 3x4th & Bronze Medallist At Global Seniors, Too Young To Race As World Juniors Begin
World Junior Championships get underway without the outstanding youth of the year because Yu Zidi, 12, is too young; and Summer McIntosh leads star lineup for World Cups in October
Day 1 at World Junior Championships in Romania delivered a line never seen in the sport before: the fastest junior on the planet over 400m medley this year was not in the race because, at 12, Yu Zidi is to young to be eligible for the youth showcase.
The oddity is this: too young o be a junior, Yu has a relay bronze medal from World senior championships sitting on her proverbial mantle piece back home in China next to the result sheets showing her three fourth-place finishes in solo finals at Singapore 2025 World titles that ended on August 3.
That was the day Yu became the swiftest 12-year-old female 400m medley swimmer in history: 4:33.76, for fourth place by a slither away from bronze in her third global senior final. Today, she might have been World junior champion in the same event, but for the fact she's too young to be a junior.
The Junior showcase is open to those aged 14–18 years as of 31 December of the year of the competition.
In Yu's absence, the crown went to Agostina Hein, of Argentina, 17, who crushed her own personal best of 4:37.87 set in heats this morning, when she shattered her previous best of 4:41.75 (from May this year), to take gold in 4:34.34, a championship record and second fastest pre-senior time in the world this season, the swiftest effort to be found in what we'll call Kindergarten Class given the bizarre rules of a sport that allows pre-teen Yu to race as a senior but not a junior.
The final in Romania delivered the highlight of the day among swimmers with a nation to race for, two of the four finals won by neutral athletes and the other by a Chinese quartet.
Hein led Britain's Amelie Smith, fastest entry heading into the championships. by almost 6sec at half-way, before Smith made up all but 0.09sec of the deficit by the time breaststroke was done.
The Argentinian took gold via a closing 1:01.73 on freestyle, Smith taking silver in 4:35.49, the bronze to Japan's Shuna Sasaki in 4:38.94, with American Audrey Derivaux making it four inside 4:40, on 4:39.67. Day 1 Finals:
Semi-finals
Men's 100m breaststroke
Filip Nowacki, who claimed four gold medals at European Junior Championships this season and clocked 59.59 in the 1009m breaststroke to break Adam Peaty's 100m British junior record, shaved another slice off his best for a 59.24 ticket to lane 4 in the World junior final tomorrow.
Japan's Shin Ohashi was closest, and enters the final favourite on the clock. How so? On 21 July, he clocked 2:06.91 in the 200m breaststroke at the 79th All Kinki High School Swimming Championships and on 23 July 58.94 in the 100m breaststroke. Both times were confirmed as World Junior records by World Aquatics today.
Confirmation was also given for the 4:09.38 World Junior standard set by 17-year-old Yumeki Kojima in the 400m Medley at the Tokai Inter-High School Athletic Meet on 19 July. He, too, is racing at the showcase in Otopeni this week.
In Other Semis:
Women's 50m breastroke
Men's 100m backstroke
World Cup Rosters Include McIntosh, McKeown, Douglass, O'Callaghan, Smith, Ponti, Kós, Ceccon, Liendo - and Peaty
Among top names to confirm their participation in the World Cup this autumn are Summer McIntosh, the Canadian who emerged from World titles run Singapore this month the most decorated swimmer of the showcase.
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