KY ODLUM OF STT
[ad name=”HTML-68″]
INDIANAPOLIS — St. Thomas swimming sensation Ky Odlum set two territorial-age-group swimming records in two days during the third day of the FINA Junior World Swimming Championships in Indiana.
Odlum, 14, broke the Virgin Islands’ 13-14 record in the boys 100-meter butterfly during his heat race at the Junior Worlds, with a time of 1 minute, 1.43 seconds on Thursday.
And on Friday Odlum beat his own mark in the boys 50-meter freestyle during a heat race by notching a time of 25.62 seconds. Previously, Odlum swam the same event in 25.72 seconds. His best time was good enough for fifth in the heat race and 67th overall.
Odlum’s time on Thursday improved the previous record of 1:01.59 set by Scott Hensley in 1997.
St. Croix’s Natalia Kuipers finished in fifth place in her heat race on Friday in the girls 50-meter butterfly, turning in a time of 31.22 seconds, good enough for 63rd overall.
Four swimmers from the Virgin Islands traveled to Indiana to compete in the FINA Junior World Championships, which began on Wednesday.
Webster Bozzo and Kuipers, each members of the St. Croix Dolphins swim club; and Odlum and Carter Maltby, each members of the St. Thomas Stingrays swim team, are entered in multiple events in the week-long meet which conclude on Monday.
Meanwhile, in other swimming news, Regan Smith of the U.S. and Jordan Brunt of Australia are the two scratches for day 3 finals in Indianapolis at the 2017 World Junior (Swimming) Championships.
Smith, who won gold in a new junior world record in the 100 back last night, swam both the 50 fly and 200 back preliminaries this morning.
She qualified for the 50 fly semis out of one of the non-circle-seeded heats, but has scratched that event. Her moving out puts Kristyna Stemberova of the Czech Republic into the semi-finals after she was 17th in 27.68 this morning. Smith had tied for 13th in 27.47.
Smith will swim the 200 back final, where she’ll aim for another junior world record after cruising to a new meet record of 2:09.07 in the prelims.
The junior record stands at 2:06.76 from Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, done at the World Championships this year.
Australia’s Brunt has moved out of the 50 free, where he originally made the semis in 14th in a time of 23.07.
That scratch prevented a swim-off, as Arsenii Chivilev (RUS) and Rodolfo Moreira (BRA) tied for 16th in 23.21, but now both get to swim.
SWIMMING STAR: Natalia Kuipers (left) at a warm-up swimming event on St. Croix.