Australian Dolphins | 20 August 2025
WORLD JUNIORS DAY 1: TEX-TRA CLASSY START TO FINALS
TWELVE teenage Dolphins hit the water for individual swims on the opening day of World Junior Championships in Otopeni, Romania and the morning heats session was a long one stretching out to more than three hours.
Almost 900 athletes are set to contest the six-day competition – including 30 junior Dolphins – and West Australian Tex Cross (pictured above) was a standout for the green and gold on the first night of finals.
A headline act at Australian Age Championships earlier this year, the 18-year-old smashed out a PB of 3:48.17 to claim fourth in the men’s 400m free.
Neutral Athlete Grigorii Vekovishchev out touched teammate Egor Babinich by 0.93 seconds to win gold in 3:46.64 with China’s Xu Haibo third.
Swimming from lane eight, Xu was sixth at 350m before coming back in 26.93 to overtake Cross and touch in 3:47.73, pushing Cross out of the medals.
Fellow Dolphin Lucas Fackerell clocked 3:56.41 in his heat swim.
In other events:
> Henry Allan had his first taste of international competition and promptly booked himself lane six for tomorrow morning’s 100m backstroke final (AEST).
Allan led prelims with 54.15 before clocking 54.05 in his semi final and while still outside his PB and national age record of 53.73, showed impressive early speed to qualify fourth fastest for the final.
American Gavin Keogh (53.52) leads a crowded final eight, John Shortt of Ireland qualified second (53.80) with Georgii Iakovlev of the Neutral Athletes qualified third fastest (53.90).
Eight swimmers from eight different nations will contest the final. Fellow Aussie Jack Morrow missed the final, finishing 12th (55.26).
>Amelie Smith can now boast she was part of the quickest women’s 400m IM in the meet’s history.
Argentinian Agostina Hein rewrote the record books, clocking 4:34.34 in the final – exactly 2.5 seconds quicker than the 2023 old meet record and putting her 1.15 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s silver medallist Amalie Smith.
But our own A. Smith – finished a creditable eighth (4:44.62).
> Take a bow Mikayla Bird, Jessica Cole, Alice Monaghan and Zoe Ammundsen for their efforts in the 4x200m free relay team. The junior Dolphins clocked 8:05.02 to finish sixth in a cracking relay final that saw China win the race in 7:51.59, just .12 off the meet and world junior record set in 2017 by Canada.
Double clap for Ammundsen, it was her second swim of the night after 50 minutes earlier contesting the women’s 100m backstroke semi finals.
Ammundsen (1:00.40) qualified fourth fastest for tomorrow morning’s (AEST) 100m back final with semi-final places two to 10 separated by just 0.46 seconds.
Top qualifier American Charlotte Crush … well, crushed it. Her 59.21 just a tenth off the meet record set in 2017 by one Regan Smith.
Pic: Henry Allan, courtesy of World Aquatics
