The last two days of the 2024 World Short Course Swimming Championships featured many finals. Among them, the women’s 50 and 1500-meter freestyle finals saw two young swimmers, Amelie Blocksidge and Eva Okaro, who shone at an age where they could still compete in junior events.
A First World Final at 15
She had already made a name for herself in 2023 and 2024 when she became British champion twice and came close to an Olympic qualification. These performances logically led to her first senior call-up for these championships. Competing in three events, the 400 and 800 meters allowed her to experience the pressure of major championships and served as training for her best event, the 1500 meters. Entered in the fastest heat, Blocksidge experienced her first international senior final. The Salford athlete showed good race management, gradually moving up the field over the 60 laps to finish fifth in her heat and seventh overall. With a time of 15:47.28, she improved her best performance of last year by over a second and is now just one second away from the senior British record, which she is expected to break soon if her progress continues.
Reflecting on her experience at these World Short Course Championships and what she learned, Amelie said: “It was really fun because it was a completely new experience for me. Racing against senior swimmers, I was sometimes a bit behind, and it gave me a new challenge: catching up with the others. It’s in situations like this that I thrive, and it helped me achieve a new personal best, so it clearly worked. I’ve learned so much. I changed my warm-ups, made a few adjustments, just to experiment and I’ve really gained a lot this week.”
Junior World Record for Eva Okaro
These championships marked her third senior competition after the European Championships and the 2024 Olympics, where she had qualified brilliantly. Arriving in Budapest with a best time of 24.61 in the 50 meters (short course), she first improved it in the heats (24.02), then in the semifinals (23.71), qualifying for the final with the sixth-fastest time of the eight finalists. At 18 years old, Eva Okaro finished in fourth place in the final with a new personal best (23.66), which set a new junior world record, surpassing the previous record of 23.69 set by Anastasyia Shkurdai in 2020. Thanks to this performance, Okaro became the second-best national performer of all ages, behind Fran Halsall (23.44 in 2009). This race also allowed Gretchen Walsh to set her ninth world record in this competition and win a new gold medal ahead of fellow American Kate Douglass and Polish swimmer Kasia Wasick, who finished just under three-tenths ahead of Okaro.
Crowned vice-world champion in the women’s 4*100 medley relay, Okaro said: “This last day has been amazing! Finishing with the relay, with the girls, was really everything I could have hoped for. A very fun way to wrap up the competition, and I’m really happy.”
“[The 50m freestyle final] was incredible. It’s a really fast pool, that’s for sure, and a junior world record for me, I couldn’t ask for more. This pool is fantastic, I had great races here, personal bests everywhere and of course, racing against Gretchen [Walsh, the new world record holder], it’s crazy, completely wild. In the call room, the atmosphere was really tense, but it was so intense and great. I love competition, I love racing against the best because it pushes me to my limits. I also love the experience itself: traveling around the world and racing against different opponents, that’s really what I enjoy.”
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