Evgeny Rylov Surprises With Russian Record In 50 Back Semis

2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
• Hangzhou, China
• Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
• SCM (25m)
• Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
• *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
• Live Results (Omega)

Swimming amongst a who’s who of great backstroke sprinters, reigning 200m long course world champion Evgeny Rylov emerged as the fastest out of all of them in the semi-finals of the men’s 50 back, clocking a new Russian National Record of 22.68.

While his 18-year-old countryman Kliment Kolesnikov has been assaulting the record books over the last year or so, this was one he hadn’t got to yet. He had the set the world record in the SCM 100 back and the LCM 50 back, but the Russian SCM 50 back mark of 22.74 had remained on the books since 2010 when Stanislav Donets won the European title.

Rylov took that out tonight, qualifying 1st for the final tomorrow and moving into a tie for 3rd all-time in the event with Brazilian Guilherme Guido.

Joining Rylov under 23 seconds in the semis was Ryan Murphy (22.87), Xu Jiayu (22.91) and Shane Ryan (22.96), with Murphy’s swim tying the American Record and Ryan’s breaking the Irish Record. Guido (23.00) and Kolesnikov (23.15) also advanced to the final in 5th and 7th respectively.

Prior to tonight’s swim, Rylov was the 18th fastest man in history after going 22.97 at the Russian Championships last month.

ALL-TIME PERFORMERS, MEN’S 50 BACK

^{*this list is excluding Murphy’s lead-off on the mixed medley relay (22.77)}

1. Florent Manaudou (FRA), 22.22
2. Peter Marshall (USA), 22.61
3. Guilherme Guido (BRA) / Evgeny Rylov (RUS), 22.68
4. –
5. Xu Jiayu (CHN), 22.70
6. Stanislav Donets (RUS) / Junya Koga (JPN), 22.74
7. –
8. Pavel Sankovich (BLR) / Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 22.82
9. –
10. Thomas Rupprath (GER) / Gerhard Zandberg (RSA) / Jeremy Stravius (FRA), 22.85

Note that Murphy’s swim tonight was an American Record despite Peter Marshall being faster back in 2009. That’s due to the fact that Marshall’s swim was done when USA Swimming wasn’t recognizing American Records done in the tech suits. Read more on that here and here.