2022 Bosnia & Herzegovina Championships (25m)
- December 17-18, 2022
- Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Short Course Meters (25m), Prelims/Finals
- Full Meet Results
While Bosnia & Herzegovina’s top swimming star Lana Pudar was busy racing at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Australia, part of a three-swimmer squad, the country’s other top young talent Jovan Lekic was racing for redemption in a home pool in Sarajevo.
The 19-year-old crushed his own National Record in the 400 free by more than five seconds, and also broke a nine-year-old record in the 200 free.
Lekic swam 3:43.61 in the 400-meter free, which broke his own record of 3:48.83 from the Russian-hosted Solidarity Games in November. That, in turn, broke his record of 3:49.34 from the Berlin World Cup meet in October.
| World Cup | Solidarity Games | BiH Championships | |
| October 2022 | November 2022 | December 2022 | |
| 100m | 55.27 | 55.4 | 53.36 |
| 200m | 58.52 | 58.62 | 57.02 |
| 300m | 58.38 | 58.96 | 56.98 |
| 400m | 57.17 | 55.85 | 56.25 |
| Total Time | 3:49.34 | 3:48.83 | 3:43.61 |
Lekic also swam 1:45.26 in the 200 free at the meet, which snuck under the 2013 time of Olympian Ensar Hajder. He swam 1:45.41 at that year’s German Championships.
He picked up a third individual win in the 100 free in 50.17; the National Record in that event is 48.20.
Lekic was, for a moment, the country’s first-ever European Junior Championship medalist after touching first in the 400 free and 200 free (in long course) in 2021.
The future LSU Tiger twice tested positive for the banned substance higenamine, though, and had his results stripped. Upon appeal, he had a two-year ban reduced to six months and a finding of “no significant fault or negligence” by an appeals panel.
That allowed him to return to competition in October, and he has continued his rising trajectory in the interim.
Pudar, 16, had a best finish at the World Championships of 4th place in the 200 fly. She was the youngest swimmer to advance from prelims in that race and the second-youngest to even enter the event.
Adi Mesetovic finished 46th in both the men’s 50 free and 100 free, while 15-year-old Iman Avdic finished 18th in the women’s 800 free at Worlds.