Carmen Weiler Breaks Spanish Record, Hubert Kos Hungarian Record in the 200 Back

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A pair of records from high profile swimming nations fell in the 200 backstroke preliminary rounds on Sunday: the last morning session of the 2024 Short Course World Championships.

Carmen Weiler Sastre qualified to finals as the 3rd seed in the women’s 200 backstroke in 2:02.16, breaking the Spanish Record, and Hubert Kos qualified 1st into the men’s final in 1:48.02, breaking the Hungarian Record.

Spanish Splash

Weiler is part of a large Spanish contingent that trains in the United States at Virginia Tech under Spanish Olympic medal winner Sergio Lopez-Miro. Raised in Singapore, Weiler Sastre is already the Spanish Record holder in the 100 and 200 meter backstrokes in long course and the 100 backstroke in short course (set in the semifinals this week in 56.09).

She now adds the 200 back in short course with a 2:02.16.

That breaks a record set 13 years ago by Duane da Rocha at the European Short Course Championships in 2:03.32.

2024 has been a good year for Weiler, dropping big times across events and courses (including in the sprint freestyles). This 200 backstroke, though, was an especially-good swim, taking almost three seconds off her previous best that was done a year ago at the Spanish Club Championships in Castellon. There, she swam 2:04.94, which in turn was more than a two second drop.

The improvements are not necessarily just due to a lack of short course meters racing either – she dropped, for example, 2.3 seconds in the 200 backstroke in the 2024 calendar year to go 2:08.89 in June.

Splits Comparison

Reflecting her improvements in the 50 and 100 free and 100 back, Weiler was out like a flash on Saturday morning, starting the race two seconds faster than her previous personal best swim. She closed well too, grabbing almost another second ahead of her personal best (but pretty well in-line with the prior record-setting splits).

Weiler will now be in a battle for the medals with not only the two who finished ahead of her Summer McIntosh (2:01.52) and Anastasiya Shkurdai (2:01.78), but the two Americans who finished behind her. That includes Phoebe Bacon (2:03.36) and the World Record holder Regan Smith (2:02.42).

Spain has one medal in the meet so far: gold from Weiler’s Virginia Tech teammate Carles Coll Marti in the 200 breaststroke.

Kos Does It For the Home Crowd

A day after Hungary won their first gold medal of the championships, Hubert Kos lined himself up for another in the 200 back.

He swam 1:48.02 to qualify first into the final by more than two seconds. He won’t be totally clean in finals – while the meet lacks a lot of the biggest names in 200 backstroking globally, the second-seeded Mewen Tomac of France has been 1:48.55.

Kos, meanwhile, smashed the old Hungarian Record of Peter Bernek, set in 2012 at the European Short Course Championships. There he swam 1:49.41.

Splits Comparison

Kos, like Weiler, did a lot of his work on the front half of the race. The defending Olympic Champion in long course hasn’t swum this event in short course meters since November 2022, but in that time he has made big progressions in short course yards.

Kos’ former Arizona State teammate Zalan Sarkany won the 800 free on Saturday to break the seal on gold medals for Hungary.