2018 FINA WORLD CUP – BEIJING
- Friday, November 2nd – Sunday, November 4th
- Beijing National Aquatics Centre, Water Cube
- Heats at 10am local/Finals at 7pm local
- SCM
- Entry List
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Day 1 Prelims/Day 1 Finals
- Results
While competing on day 1 of the 2018 FINA World Cup Series stop in Beijing, 23-year-old Xu Jiayu clocked a new Chinese National Record in the men’s short course meters 200 backstroke.
After clocking a morning effort of 1:54.33 to casually take the top seed, Xu cranked out a mega-big time performance of 1:49.08 to beat out Australian rival Mitch Larkin, who settled for silver in 1:50.72.
Registering splits of 52.34/56.74, Xu’s time of 1:49.08 smashed his previous career fastest of 1:50.61 he earned way back in 2014 at this same meet. His time tonight now sits only behind the aforementioned Larkin by .01 in the current season rankings and also now ranks the 5-time gold medalist from the 2018 Asian Games as the 16th fastest performer of all-time in the event.
2018-2019 SCM MEN 200 BACK
RYLOV
1.47.02
| 2 | Ryan MURPHY | USA | 1.47.34 | 12/16 |
| 3 | Radoslaw KAWECKI | POL | 1.48.25 | 12/16 |
| 3 | Mitchell LARKIN | AUS | 1.48.25 | 12/16 |
| 5 | Jiayu XU | CHN | 1.48.32 | 11/09 |
Xu has been earning his international hardware more in the 100m back sprint, including Olympic silver in Rio, as well as gold at last year’s long course World Championships in Budapest. But, his 200m has steadily been coming along, both in long course and in short course. His gold medal-garnering effort of 1:53.99 in Jakarta not only gave him Asian Games gold, but it entered the Chinese swimming history books as the new LCM National Record.
Xu has to be the favorite now for Tokyo in both the 100 and 200. Murphy exceeded his dreams, so motivation will be a bit difficult. Larkin swims best in off Olympic years. Irie is a bit too old. I wouldn’t be surprised if Xu gets both WRs too.
Murphy reset his goals after Rio. He was faster than Xu in both the 100 and 200 last summer. You’re also forgetting about two Russians who have a chance. Rylov is consistently faster than Xu in the 200 and Kolesnikov is the youngest in the field.