August 26, 2019 – An outstanding weekend for PK Jadran Split swimmer Franko Grgić who has celebrated two gold medals and achieved new records at the 7th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Budapest.
After winning the gold in the 800-meter-freestyle while breaking a Croatian record just three days ago, Franko Grgić has left his fans no time to recover from the celebration – the 16-year-old swimming sensation has done it again, this time becoming the world champion in the 1500-meter-freestyle, reports HRT.
Namely, Grgić won the World Junior Championship title in the 1500-meters-freestyle at the World Championships in Budapest and even achieved a new world junior record with a time of 14:46.09 minutes.
Grgić swam 10.46 seconds faster in Budapest than his best-ever record in the 1500 meters, which was also Croatia’s national record.
Just how dominant Grgić has been in Hungary is shown by his advantage of 13.10 seconds over silver Australian Thomas Neill, or 19.08 seconds over the bronze medalist Russian Ilya Sibirtsev.
“I practiced swimming at my own pace, regardless of the others, and that is how I started this race. I believe in myself, I am aware of my reach, but I think I can do a lot more than I have shown,” Franko Grgić said after the win.
Recall, just three days ago, the 16-year-old wunderkid won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Budapest in the 800-meter freestyle. Grgić celebrated with a score of 7:45.92 ahead of Russian Ilia Sibirtsev and Australian Thomas Neill, who were more than two seconds behind him.
Franko’s previous career-fastest in the 800-meter free was achieved in Zagreb in March where he swam 7:53.75. In Budapest, however, Grgić was 8 seconds faster, thus breaking the Croatian record held by Marin Mogić (7:51:78).
Grgić was thus named the 25th fastest performer of all-time, any age, in this 800-meter freestyle.
Earlier this year, Grgić won the gold in the 400-meter and 1500 meter at the EYOF in Baku, and also hit the Olympic standard for Tokyo 2020.
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