Diarmuid Shortt won the World junior 100m backstroke in 53.86, finishing 0.08 seconds ahead of Georgii Iakovlev and with Gavin Keogh third in 54.06. Shortt split 26.17 at the halfway mark and returned in 27.69 for his second-fastest time, just outside his 53.80 Irish junior record set in the semi-final. Shortt previously won European junior gold in July in 54.09. Shortt celebrated national pride after the victory and credited coach John Szaranek's strategy to go out with the leaders, then rely on a faster closing 50m. Shortt joins Mona McSharry as Ireland's other World junior champion.
It feels pretty good, just so much pride at the minute, getting up there, singing my national anthem, on a World stage now, not just a European stage.
I'm just so proud to be Irish and proud to be here. It's been a long season, but to end it like that, it's just so cool. The meets not finished, but I'm just saying, the last 100 back of the season, we've ended on a positive note so, I'm very happy with that.
The race went really well, I was just holding on for dear life towards the end, but we got the hand on the wall first and that's really all that matters. The strategy, that my amazing coach [John Szaranek] put in to place was we had to be out with the guys, because they were out so much quicker than me last night and you know they were beating me to the first 50m, so as long as I went with them, I knew I had a chance to come back quicker than they did and that's exactly what happened, so [it was] all part of my brilliant coach's strategy!
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