Taiwanese swimmer Eddie Wang on Saturday broke the 200m short course butterfly world junior record at the opening meet of the International Swimming League season in Budapest, Hungary.
The 18-year-old, who was representing the Cali Condors, a San Francisco-based professional swimming club, finished third in 1 minute, 50.79 seconds.
Wang finished behind winner Tom Shields of the LA Current (1:50.43) and runner-up Chad le Clos of Energy Standard (1:50.48).
Photo: screen grab from the Cali Condors Web site
Wang’s time broke the 2012 world junior record of 1:51.30 set by former Japanese national team captain Daiya Seto.
It also broke his national record of 1:52.38, set at the 2018 FINA World Cup meeting in Singapore, by 1.59 seconds.
It is the first world junior record to be held by a Taiwanese.
Coach Huang Chih-yung said that Wang had not targeted the world junior record at the event, which they were using as part of his training regime.
“Frankly, I’m surprised,” Huang said, when asked about Wang’s 1.59 second improvement.
Wang was born on Jan. 23, 2002. Under FINA rules for world junior records, swimmers are age-eligible through Dec. 31 of the year in which they turn 18.
Wang joined the Cali Condors early last month to become the first Taiwanese swimmer in the International Swimming League.
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