JAKARTA - Indonesian male swimmer Felix Viktor Iberle won the men's 50-meter breaststroke gold medal in the final round of the 2023 Junior Swimming World Championship which was held in Netanya, Israel, Saturday, September 9 local time.
Quoted from the World Aquatics page, Felix came out to be the fastest with a time of 27.39 seconds.
The 18-year-old swimmer defeated Jonas Gaur (Denmark) and Watson Nguyen (United States) by a time margin of 0.16 seconds and 0.46 seconds, respectively.
“Iberle is a new phenomenon that has only emerged in the world over the past four months. It is the only Indonesian swimmer in the championship, only in the city for one championship and has to wait until the final night of the race to get the chance to win a gold medal,” said World Aquatics quoted via Antara, Sunday, September 10.
"The Gold that Iberle won was Indonesia's first medal in the world swimming championship, both junior and senior class, regardless of color (medal)," he added.
Not only that, but Felix also managed to break the championship record in the preliminary round. He was 0.04 seconds ahead of the world junior record previously held by Nicolo Martinenghi (Italy) in 2017 with a time of 27.02 seconds. Felix recorded a time of 26.98 seconds in the qualifying round which was also his best personal record.
Apart from the junior world championship record, Felix also broke the record for Indonesian swimmers. He, who is a debuter at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia, May, recorded his best time at the men's 50 meter breaststroke with a time of 27.70 seconds.
Felix also broke the SEA Games record in the qualifying session with 27.56 seconds stepping down Chien Yin Lionel Kho's time record from Singapore with 28.15 seconds when competing in the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.
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