The Tribune

YOUNG Bahamian swimmer Dustin Tynes has shattered a four-year-old record that Jeremy Knowles set in 2008.

Dustin, competing in his second event in the men’s 50 metre breaststroke at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai, lowered the record from 29.69 to 29.60 when he placed 28th overall for the best showing by a Bahamian male competitor at the championships.

In Saturday's Big T newspaper, read Dustin's reaction to his result and see a great picture of Dustin at the games.

Dustin made sure he wasn't left out on Thursday after watching Joanna Evans ink her name into the record book twice at the 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai.

Today, Friday, Evans competed in the preliminaries of the women’s 50m free where she placed 57th overall in 28.65. It was an improvement on her previous personal best of 28.97.

Evans opened the championship for the Bahamas by lowering her national record in the 800m free from 8:59.49 to 8:58.64 for 16th place overall on day two. She came back in her second event and posted her second record on Thursday in the 400m free in 4:24.72 for 20th place overall.

Evans, a 15-year-old native of Grand Bahama, will close out the competition for the Bahamas in the 200m free on Saturday.

Swimming coach Andy Loveitt said he has been extremely pleased with the record-breaking performances from both Evans and Tynes.

“We have had a great meet so far with three senior national records being broken. I could not have asked for more from these two swimmers and I am very proud of them,” he said. “They now have to step up to the senior ranks and continue to develop on the world stage for many years to come.

“This has been a great experience for them, but it is important that they see this as the beginning of a journey and they return home with a renewed energy that will take them onto greater things in the future. Motivation is relatively easy when you have two athletes with the desire that these have to succeed at a higher level. There is always another challenge on the horizon which I can get them to focus on.”

As Evans prepares to complete the Bahamas’ appearance at the meet, Loveitt said he is not going to make any predictions, but added: “I always know that Jo will give me 110 per cent in anything she does in training or in competition. I cannot ask for anything more from her or anyone else I coach.”

BAHAMIAN swimmer Joanna Evans set a new national record time of 8:58.64 in the heats of the girls 800 metre freestyle event at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai.

In the end Joanna came sixteenth after the timed finals, with 8:58.64; she had been eighth in the semifinal. Her previous record was 8:59.49.

She was pleased to have broken the national record and to be the first Bahamian to get in the top 16 at the championships.

More than 800 elite swimmers under the age of 18 from 90 countries are competing over six days in the 4th World Junior Swimming Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

The fastest heat of the girls’ 800m saw a one-girl show as Alanna Bowles (AUS) built a three body-length advantage after 400m and enjoyed a seemingly easy cruise in the second half of the race to win with 8:32.68.

She just missed her compatriot, Bonnie Macdonald’s 2011 CR by 0.38sec.

On Monday, Dustin Tynes, 17, for The Bahamas came 37th in the boys 100 metre breaststroke.

Russia’s Vsevolod Zanko finished just outside the championships record in the race.

Zanko was a 1:01.43, and he was followed by countrymate Ilya Khomenko in 1:01.57. Khomenko tied with Dmitriy Balandin from neighbouring Kazakhstan for that 2nd spot, and Japan’s Kohei Goto was 3rd in 1:01.96.

Dustin was recorded at 1:05.37.

Joanna is in the girls 400 metre freestyle on August 29; the girls 50 metre freestyle on August 30 and the girls 200 metre freestyle on August 31. Dustin is back for the boys 50 metre breaststroke on Friday, August 30, when he swims in heat four of seven, against Mexico, Hong Kong, Trinidad & Tobago, Honduras, Aruba, United States, Lithuania, South Africa and Bulgaria.

Today (Tuesday), Russia earned eight medals including three golds. In the boys’ field all four finals brought a new Championship Record, one more was clocked in the women’s events and another one in the mixed medley relay final.

Apostolos Christou (GRE) swept through the pool with a fine sub-55sec effort in the men’s 100m back, ensuring a great start of the second day’s afternoon session.

The Greek’s win was never in doubt, he clocked a new Championship Record. The battle for the silver was a tight one, Danas Rapsys (LTU) had the better touch-in ahead of Grigory Tarasevich (RUS), by 0.09sec.

The women’s 200m fly brought a surprising result: Kathryn McLaughlin (USA) launched a sensational finish to pass Liliana Szilagyi (HUN) in the last ten metres; in fact, the Hungarian had the best entry time (a full second better than the others’), won the heats by a huge margin but didn’t noticed the American coming.

After the opening day’s duel over 400m, the Horton (AUS) vs. Guy (GBR) rematch in the 200m free produced the same outcome with the Aussie winning (and bringing down the Championship Record, of course) by a comfortable margin.

Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) earned her first gold medal in Dubai, she managed to break the 30sec barrier, she clocked 29.86 upon winning the breaststroke dash – a slightly weaker effort than her world record (29.48) set in Barcelona.

The boys’ 100m breaststroke event offered a great race: at the half-way mark Dmitry Balandin (KAZ) led the race but the two Russian finalists geared up for the second 50m and Ilya Khomenko, who had turned 6th, came home the fastest, especially in the last 10 metres with Vsevolod Zenko securing a 1-2 finish for Russia. Balandin was out-touched for the bronze by Kohei Goto (JPN) with 0.04sec.

The girls’ 100m back final was the most exciting race of the day: four swimmers arrived simultaneously to the red part of the lane-diving ropes so it was a bit of luck which decided the final order. In fact, 0.28sec separated the winner from the fourth-placed: Daria Ustinova (RUS) had the golden touch, 0.13sec ahead of Kathleen Baker (USA) with Jessica Fullalove (GBR) with a further 0.09sec away.

Swimming on lane 1 and 2, Semen Makovich (RUS) and Keita Sumana (JPN) led the pack at the halfway mark in the boys’ 200m individual medley and they managed to keep up with the others in the second part as well. What’s more, Makovich seemed to make wonder by winning the event on lane 1, but Joseph Bentz’s (USA) freestyle leg was devastating: his 28.20 was better than six of the FINA World Championships finalists’ last leg in Barcelona, and his time would have been enough to swim in that final. Here Bentz gained 0.60sec both on the Russian and the Japanese over the last 50m and won the race, though the margin was rather tiny (0.06sec). Naturally, the American set a new Championship Record.

But it was the Russians who had the last laugh and clinched their third title of the day in a fabulous race in the day-ending mixed medley relay.

The event – which will also be part of the FINA World Championships’ programme from 2015 – brought a fantastic race. Lithuania was the only team starting with a male backstroker and it paid off as it turned out later: Danas Rapsys clocked an even better time (55.22) than his silver medal-winning effort (55.24) an hour earlier in the individual race and Ruta Meilutyte was still first at 200m.

However, Vselovod Zdanko’s breaststroke leg in the Russian relay proved to be the decisive one: his reaction time was dangerously good (0.05sec) and his 59.96 effort was more than two seconds better than the closest one in the field and that paved the way to the top of the podium.

Though Lithuania could go further ahead as another boy vs. girl clash followed in the fly, their 5 second-lead recorded at the 300m turn didn’t last too long. Eva Gliozeryte (LTU) came up with a heroic effort but Evgeny Sedov (RUS) powered her off in the last 50m (49.20 to 57.78), though the Lithuanian girl could keep the second position.

The US relay, turning fifth, clinched the bronze, thanks to another superb anchor leg from Caeleb Dressler (the last man of the golden US 4x100 free relay from Monday), this time he produced 48.70, the best of the entire field. Interestingly, the majority of the teams applied the girl-boy-girl-boy line-up, only Lithuania opted for reverse order while Great Britain started with two girls who fell 5sec behind at the half-way mark but the boys brought them back to the 5th position from the 8th.

On Monday Australia’s Mack Horton, in the 400m freestyle, got a new record of 3:50.25.

Britain’s James Guy qualified in second with a time of 3:51.05 while Andrea D’Arrigo of Italy followed with the third best time of 3:51.05.

A second championships record went to Lithuania’s Olympic and World Champion Ruta Meilutyte as she bettered the 50m breaststroke mark of 31.25 seconds set in 2008 by Canada’s Amanda Reason. The 16-year-old Lithuanian was timed at 31.10 seconds.

Olivia Anderson of the US qualified in second with a time of 31.49 seconds, while Arianna Castiglioni came in third best in a time of 31.54 seconds.

The US girls 4x200m freestyle relay team of Cierra Runge, Quinn Carrozza, Kathryn McLaughlin and Katherine Drabot recorded a time of 8:01.36, ahead of the Australian quartet who qualified second in 8:06.08.

THE fourth edition of the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships runs until August 31 and has young athletes from over 95 National Federations taking part. Swimmers aged 15-18 (for men) and 14-17 (for women) are competing in the Hamdan Sports Complex.

Last year the USA took first place with Canada and Japan in follow-up positions.

It is the most important swimming gathering in these age groups.

The FINA World Junior Swimming Championships were launched in 2006, with the first edition in Rio de Janeiro (BRA). Monterrey, in Mexico, staged the second edition in 2008, while the Peruvian capital Lima was the host of the 2011 gathering. The competition programme in Dubai comprises 42 events, including the 4x100m free and medley mixed relays.