{"id":390895,"date":"2019-08-19T10:31:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T17:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=390895"},"modified":"2019-08-19T10:38:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T17:38:17","slug":"2019-fina-world-junior-swimming-championships-psych-sheet-pallister-minakov-foster-set-for-18-and-under-spectacle-in-budapest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2019-fina-world-junior-swimming-championships-psych-sheet-pallister-minakov-foster-set-for-18-and-under-spectacle-in-budapest\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships Psych Sheet: Pallister, Minakov, Foster Set For 18 and Under Spectacle in Budapest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2019 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships will begin this week in Budapest, Hungary with the prelims beginning on Tuesday morning. The World Juniors are a nice stepping stone for the best 18 and under athletes to showcase their talents on the international stage. The World Juniors began in 2006 in Rio de Janeiro and have become a bigger deal over the years with Olympic gold medalists Mack Horton<\/strong>,\u00a0Penny Oleksiak\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Kyle Chalmers\u00a0<\/strong>using this meet as a launching pad for their success. Even as recently as 2017, today’s stars of\u00a0Kristof Milak\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Rikako Ikee\u00a0<\/strong>won a multitude of medals at the World Juniors in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

Horton still holds the meet record in the 400, 800 and 1500 free from 2013, which are the three oldest men’s meet records still standing, with Chupkov holding the 200 breast from 2015. Recently retired\u00a0Ruta Meilutyte\u00a0<\/strong>still holds two meet records from 2013 where she won the 50 and 100 breast a month after setting world records at the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Psych sheets have been released for the meet which can be viewed at the link below. Some of the future starts in the sport of swimming will be attending the meet including Worlds silver medalist Andrei Minakov\u00a0<\/strong>as well as rising stars\u00a0Luca Urlando<\/strong><\/a> and\u00a0Carson Foster\u00a0<\/strong>of the United States along with Italy’s\u00a0Thomas Ceccon<\/strong>, who won two gold medals at the European Juniors this year.<\/p>\n

Australia’s\u00a0Lani Pallister\u00a0<\/strong>is setting herself up for a huge medal haul as she is the top seed in all three distance races. She swam at the 2017 Juniors but didn’t win any medals, so this could be a huge breakout meet for her. Belarus’ Anastasiya Shkurdai\u00a0<\/strong>is also on the psych sheet as the top seed in the 50 and 100 fly as she is ranked fairly high in the world rankings. She did not swim in Gwangju last month so this will be her time to really showcase her talents as one of the rising stars in the sport.<\/p>\n

Worlds silver medalist\u00a0Benedetta Pilato<\/strong> is just 14 years of age but is already becoming a household name in swimming, but has yet to prove herself in the Olympic distances. She will be doing the 100 this week in Budapest where she is the seventh seed so she will have a chance to really make a name for herself.<\/p>\n

Also in the breaststroke races will be Russia’s\u00a0Evgeniia Chikunova<\/strong>, who would have won the silver medal at Worlds in the 200 with her best time earlier this summer. Chikunova will have some work to do to catch the meet record that\u00a0Viktoria Gunes\u00a0<\/strong>set in 2015 when she dipped under 2:20, but this could set up Chikunova for a run at a medal next summer in Tokyo.<\/p>\n