Eneli Jefimova Blasts 1:05.86 Estonian Record In 100 Breast

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2025 HELSINKI SWIM MEET

• Sunday, April 20th & Monday, April 21st
• Helsinki, Finland
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Live Results

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.

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