The trend toward taller breaststrokers is becoming ever-more present even in the youth ranks. First it was Michael Andrew (at 6’1+) taking down 11-12 breaststroke records, and now it’s Reece Whitley (at 6’3) going after them.
In the 12 & under 200 yard breaststroke final, the Penn Charter swimmer blew away his competition at the Tom Dolan Invitational today in prelims by 19 seconds, swimming a 2:09.40 for the win. That was more than a second better than his 2:10.47 set just before Thanksgiving.
Whitley’s splits were 29.59, 32.88, 33.56, 33.37, hardly showing any signs of fatigue over 200 yards. The second-closest 11-12 ever to Whitley is Andrew at a 2:13.33 – nearly a four second gap. That’s a shocking margin, especially considering that until Andrew, nobody had been better than a 2:15 in half-a-decade in this event.
Whitley in finals also has a chance at Andrew’s 50 record; his 28.26 from prelims puts him 3rd all-time on the 11-12 list with a still-distance 27.46 being the target.
Great Job Reece! This kid is not only a great swimmer but a real nice kid!!
Very impressive, but I would have liked to see Daniel Gyurta swim yards when he was 12. In LC he was ranked 129th in the world (in 2001) at an unfathomable 2:19.52, which supposedly converts to 2:01.
That breaks the US 13-14 record!
Daniel Gyurta is something else.
can you find a link for this? That just seems unreal. Maybe he was actually 14 then or something…
On Swimnews they keep a record of the top 150 for each event going back to 1990. In August 2001 Gyurta was 12 and swam 2:19, and you can see how he drops ~3 seconds each year to 2:10 for the silver medal in 2004.
http://www.swimnews.com/rank/index
As much as Gyurta shocked people in 2004 with his medal at such a young age, his times from 2001 onwards do suggest he was always somewhat a child prodigy. Great to see him getting what his talent deserves finally in London.