Competing in her first international FINA World Cup meet, Seward’s Lydia Jacoby set two “unofficial” American Junior National records, won a silver and a bronze medal and placed in the top-five in three different events in three days of competition in Berlin, Germany.
The FINA World Cup short-course meet featured international swimming in a 25-meter pool. Although Common in Europe to race in meters, in the United States short course races are measured in yards (such as Alaska high school swimming). USA Swimming maintains short-course records in yards, thus, races in meters are considered “unofficial”.
Jacob, age 17, set the fastest American time in the 18-under 50-meter breaststroke with a time of 30:04, good for a silver medal in Berlin. Lydia also raced to a bronze medal in the 100-meter breaststroke with an unofficial junior national record of 1:05.20. She opened the competition on Friday with a fifth-place in the women’s 200M breaststroke in a time of 2:24.99, two seconds faster than her personal best.
The Berlin met is the first of four legs, each counting as qualifiers to the World Swimming Championships. Next on the World Cup series will be a meet in Budapest, Hungary.
Note from swimswam.com…USA Swimming keeps short-course records for races held in yards but not for those held in meters. To fill the void, swimswam.com started keeping track of the top American times in short-course meter races; the records are unofficial because they do not come from USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body.
