Eneli Jefimova Blasts 1:05.86 Estonian Record In 100 Breast

The 2025 Helsinki Swim Meet began yesterday, Sunday, April 20th, with the host nation’s competitors taking on visiting athletes from Estonia, Norway and beyond.

The competition represents a qualification opportunity for this summer’s World Championships in Singapore, giving swimmers extra incentive to go for gold over the two-day affair.

Wasting no time clocking a Singapore-worthy effort was 18-year-old Olympian Eneli Jefimova of Estonia.

Jefimova took on the women’s 100m breaststroke on day one, ripping a lifetime best of 1:05.86 to not only top the podium, but also register a new national record.

The teen established herself as the top-seeded swimmer out of the morning heats, putting up a solid 1:06.70. That was a result already only just over half a second off her Estonian standard of 1:06.08 notched en route to becoming the 2024 European Junior champion in the event.

Flash forward to the final and Jefimova logged an opening 50m of 31.21 followed by a back half of 34.65 to check in with the new 1:05.86 stunner.

The next-closest competitor was Finnish swimmer Jenna Laukkanen who touched in 1:09.15 followed by Estonian Egle Salu who earned the bronze in 1:10.05.

Jefimova’s new record easily cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:06.87 needed to qualify for the World Championships.

Jefimova now ranks 3rd in the world on the season, sitting only behind Great Britain’s Angharad Evans (1:05.37) and Italy’s Anita Bottazzo (1:05.82).

The Estonian teen finished 7th in this event at the 2024 Olympic Games with this new record surpassing the 1:06.50 she logged in that Paris final.

During day two heats, Jefimova also nabbed a new national record en route to capturing the top seed in the 50m breaststroke.

She ripped a new career-quickest outing of 29.89 to dip under the 30-second barrier for the first time in her young career.

Entering this competition, Jeneli owned the national record at 30.08, a result she put on the books at the 2022 World Championships.

Her sub-30-second outing now renders her the world’s 10th-best performer in history and the top performer on the globe at the moment. We’ll see what she brings in the final later today.