VALETTA, Malta, July 6 — IT'S a long long way from Irvine to Malta but Milorad (Michael) Cavic didn't mind the journey one bit.<\/p>\n
The Irvine Novaquatics' sprinter-flyer, who was the fastest high schooler in America this past season in the 50 free, captured his first major international gold here today when he went a pr 54.18 to win the 100 fly during Day 2 of the European Junior Championships.<\/p>\n
The meet is open to men born 1983 and later and women born 1984 and later.<\/p>\n
Cavic swims internationally for Yugoslavia and will represent his country at the World Championships at Fukuoka in another two weeks. He also will be a senior this fall at Tustin High in Southern California and is a stellar performer for Coach Dave Salo's Irvine-based Novaquatics' team.<\/p>\n
Cavic barely made the finals tonight with his eighth-place qualifying time of 55.79. But in the race itself he won by nearly a half-second over Ukraine's Sergiy Advena's 54.66. Cavic's pr going into the meet had been a 54.73 from last year's Mission Viejo Meet of Champions.<\/p>\n
Another up-and-comer who's rapidly making his presence known in the backstroke races is Hungary's Viktor Bodrogi (are you listening, Lenny?). Bodrogi won the 200 this evening in a pr 1:59.91, sixth-fastest globally and not too far off the Hungarian record of 1:59.31 by Tamas Deutsch at the 1994 World Championships in Rome.<\/p>\n
Bodrogi, who won the 50 back opening night, had a pr of 2:00.22 that won him the gold at last year's meet in Dunquerque, France and had been 2:00.58 earlier this year at a meet in Athens during May.<\/p>\n
The 50 free went to Croatia's Duje Draganja (23.05), far off his pr-NR of 22.68 that he won with last year. That 22.68 ranked him 30th globally, along with the current world record-holder in the 10 fly, Australia's Michael Klim, and ex-Stanford Cardinal Sabir Muhammad.<\/p>\n
The final men's individual event, the 400 free, was won by Russia's Iouri Priloukov in 3:57.33.<\/p>\n
On the women's side, the biggest splash was made by Austrian breaststroker Mirna Jukic, who went a meet-record 2:28.41 for the gold. Jukic's swim is just off her pr-NR 2:28.29 from the Turnier des Nations meet in Vienna last April.<\/p>\n
Jukic's pr ranks her 13th globally and she's down from a 2:34+ last season. This win may well get her added to Austria's team for Fukuoka, where she could team up with Elvira Fischer, an All-America for Coach Paul Nelsen's Nebraska Cornhuskers this past season.<\/p>\n
Second in the 200 breast (2:31.33) was Romania's Diana Remenyi, who won the 400 IM last night.<\/p>\n
The 100 back was won by Denmark's Louise Ornstedt (1:03.26), who is the Danish record-holder off her 1:01.69 from the Sydney semis.<\/p>\n
— Bill Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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