By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Swim of the Week is brought to you by arena, a SwimSwam partner.
Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Andre Labara was the youngest swimmer in the final of the boys’ 400 IM this week at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, but that didn’t stop him from throwing down a phenomenal performance and seriously contending for a medal.
The 15-year-old Australian, who will turn 16 later this year (he was listed as 16 in the meet results due to the World Aquatics rules for World Junior Records), put up a time of 4:20.20 in the prelims of the 400 IM, lowering his previous best time of 4:22.01 set en route to victory at the Australian Age Championships in April.
Additionally, Labara, who comes from the Waga Waga Swim Club in New South Wales, took down the Australian Age Record for 15-year-old boys of 4:20.73, set by Leny Grigor in 2024. Grigor was in the field but missed the final as the third-fastest Aussie in the prelims in 4:26.53.
Then, in the final, Labara was much more aggressive over the opening 100 and carried that momentum into the rest of the race, shattering his new best time and national age record by well over three seconds in a time of 4:16.88, earning him 4th place overall.
In the prelims, Labara had very similar splits to his previous best time across the board outside of the second 50 of breaststroke, where he gained well over a second with a quick 36.47 split.
In the final, he made the biggest difference on the first 50 of fly, going out more than a second quicker than the prelims in 27.69, though he was quicker across all four 100s in the evening session.
Split Comparison
Labara, April 2026 Labara, JPP Prelims Labara, JPP Final 28.55 28.85 27.69 1:00.61 (32.06) 1:00.63 (31.78) 59.19 (31.50) 1:34.37 (33.76) 1:34.28 (33.65) 1:32.80 (33.61) 2:07.39 (33.02) 2:07.49 (33.21) 2:05.62 (32.82) 2:44.86 (37.47) 2:44.56 (37.07) 2:42.18 (36.56) 3:22.62 (37.76) 3:21.03 (36.47) 3:18.86 (36.68) 3:53.12 (30.50) 3:51.33 (30.30) 3:48.67 (29.81) 4:22.01 (28.89) 4:20.20 (28.87) 4:16.88 (28.21)All-Time Australian Performers, 15-Year-Old Boys’ 400 IM (LCM)
Andre Labara, 4:16.88 – 2026 Leny Grigor, 4:20.73 – 2024 Mitch Larkin, 4:25.45 – 2009 Thomas Hauck, 4:25.57 – 2018 Jayden Hadler, 4:25.94 – 2009In terms of the all-time rankings, Labara was just 1.68 seconds shy of the 4:15.20 mark set by Michael Phelps in 2001, which is believed to be the fastest performance ever from a 15-year-old.
Records are falling in Vancouver!
On Day 2 of the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, Lilla Ribot-De-Bresac raced to a huge PB of 1:07.17 to claim in the girls’ 100m breaststroke – setting a JPP record in the process
Then 15-year-old Andre Labara made his mark in the… pic.twitter.com/R7eamRK05v
— Swimming Australia (@SwimmingAUS) August 20, 2026
In addition to the 400 IM, Labara also swam the 200 free (1:51.91), 400 free (3:56.12) and 200 IM (2:04.47) in Vancouver, setting best times across the board while swimming out of the ‘B’ final.
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