12-12 months-Outdated Yu Zidi Proves Future is Brilliant After Scaring Podium on Three Events at World Championships
Not but a teen, China’s Yu Zidi was one of many most-watched athletes on the twenty second version of the World Championships, which concluded on Sunday in Singapore. Being a 12-year-old prodigy will entice the highlight, and the teenager’s presence in a number of occasions ensured loads of deck time throughout night classes. Being in three finals that includes Summer season McIntosh solely amplified the eye.
On the ultimate day of motion, Yu delivered a career-best time of 4:33.76 within the 400-meter particular person medley. The hassle left her a half-second behind co-silver medalists Mio Narita (Japan) and Jenna Forrester (Australia), who touched the wall in an identical marks of 4:33.26. It was the third fourth-place end of the meet for Yu, who additionally narrowly missed the rostrum within the 200 particular person medley and 200 butterfly.
The truth that Yu even certified for the World Champs was a testomony to her precocious expertise. That she almost secured a medal in three particular person occasions suggests a future stuffed with promise. To place her youth in perspective, Yu will solely be 15 years outdated when the 2028 Olympic Video games are held in Los Angeles.
Yu opened the World Champs by almost grabbing the bronze medal within the 200 particular person medley, the place she was .06 behind Canada’s Mary-Sophie Harvey, who went 2:09.15 to the two:09.21 of Yu. Within the 200 butterfly, Yu’s swim of two:06.43 left her .31 again of Australian bronze medalist Elizabeth Dekkers (2:06.12). Add in her fourth-place displaying within the 400 medley and Yu missed the rostrum by a mixed .87 over her three solo disciplines.
Yu didn’t stroll away empty-handed from Singapore. As a prelims performer within the 800 freestyle relay, Yu was awarded a bronze medal, the end for China within the remaining. That medal made the pre-teen the youngest medalist in world competitors in 89 years. On the 1936 Olympic Video games in Berlin, Denmark’s Inge Sorensen earned the bronze medal within the 200 breaststroke lower than a month after turning 12 years outdated. Yu gained’t flip 13 till October.
There isn’t a world championship in 2026, however Yu will nonetheless get the possibility to compete at a excessive degree on the Asian Video games, scheduled for September in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. In the meantime, Chinese language Nationals will provide the chance for elite competitors.
Will Yu proceed her speedy ascension towards the highest of the game? Time will reply that query. If nothing else, she is a unqiue expertise who has proven she belongs.
