Teen Swim Phenom Breaks Women’s Record

17-year-old swimming sensation Jeong Ji-yeon broke a six-year-old competition record and came out on top at the 78th Dong-A Swimming Competition that began yesterday at Ulsan’s Munsu Indoor Swimming Pool.

Jeong’s time of 2:19:56 in the female high school division’s 200-meter individual medley shortened the competition record set by Lee Ji-hyeon (2:19:87) in 2000 by 0.31 second. Jeong first made her name in last year’s 400m individual medley, finishing in 4:51:63 to set the competition record.

The rate of her athletic development has been impressive. Just one year after joining the national swimming team, she renewed her 400m record time by 14 seconds. Lee went on to break the 4:45:16 Korean record—set by Nam Yu-seon in Athens Olympics—at the Macao East Asian Games in November, 2004. Jeong will challenge another record in the 800m women’s freestyle event on April 21. A total of 1,326 athletes, counting both junior and adult divisions, are participating in this year’s event.

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com