You wouldn’t know it by hearing enthusiasm from the crowd or the announcer at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre on Thursday morning, but American Matt Grevers’ prelims swim in the men’s 100 backstroke broke the Pan Pac Championship record in the 100 meter backstroke.
He swam a 52.91, which beat the old record of 53.31 set by American Aaron Peirsol in 2010. It also broke the Australian All-Comers Record, which also belonged to Peirsol from Worlds in 2007 where he was a 52.98. The All-Comers records in Australia represent the fastest swims ever done on Australian soil.
That result was the 8th-fastest of Grevers’ career, and made him the top qualifier in finals.
That doesn’t mean that either the record or the gold is safe for the lengthy American. His young country mate Ryan Murphy had a faster first 50, and Japan’s Ryosuke Irie is consistently dangerous and consistently good. With times of 53.24 and 53.29, respectively, they were both also under the old Pan Pacs record.
2 days before , i felt intuitively that if Usa wants to win the 400 free relay , they need a Solid Grevers ( 48.10 or lower ) , ERvin , Adrian and ….. ??? maybe Feigen or Lochte . But surely Grevers .
Grevers looked quite good. Excited to see what he can in finals, and also in the 100 free. No conflict with the 100 back and the 4×100 free. The top three US men swimmers in the 100 free since the beginning of 2010 are Adrian, Feigen, and Phelps, then Jones, Ervin, Grevers, and Lochte are all within about .12 of each other. If four guys swim close to their best all at the same time, the 4×100 free relay should be able to crack 3:10.