17-Year-Old Anastasiya Shkurdai Crushes 56.95 100 Fly Lifetime Best

2020 BELARUS OPEN

• Tuesday, July 14th – Saturday, July 18th
• Brest Regional Olympic Aquatic Center
• 50m (LCM)
• Entries
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

17-year-old Anastasiya Shkurdai broke the Belarusian national record in the women’s 100m fly while competing on day 3 of the 2020 Belarus Open in Brest.

After posting a speedy mark of 58.27 in the prelims to represent the only sub-minute swimmer of the field, the European Short Course champion busted out a menacing statement swim of 56.95 to stand atop the podium with the gold medal around her neck.

Splits are not available at the time of publishing, but Shkurdai’s time tonight signified her first venture under the 57-second mark. Her lifetime best and previous national record stood at the 57.39 she produced for gold at the 2019 World Junior Championships. As such, Shkurdai’s outing here dropped just under half a second from the previous Belarusian standard.

Shkurdai’s 56.95 time tonight renders her just outside the list of top 25 performers all-time worldwide, again with the Belarusian having turned 17 just this year.

For perspective, Shkurdai’s time would check-in as the fastest ever among American females aged 17-18, inserting itself ahead of Regan Smith’s 57.34 from Des Moines Pro Swim in March of this year. The Belarusian’s performance also puts Canadian Penny Oleksiak’s World Junior Record on notice. That mark rests at the 56.46 the Canadian put up at the 2016 Olympic Games while Shkurdai’s time here is exactly half a second away.

In the men’s arena tonight, Ilya Shymanovich took the men’s 50m breaststroke with ease, crushing a winning time of 26.83 to top the field by over a second. He owns a lifetime best and national record of 26.55 from this same meet in 2019.