2025 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – Toronto
- October 23-25, 2025
- Toronto, Canada
- SCM (25 meters)
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Men’s 200 Backstroke – Finals
World Record: 1:45.63 – Mitch Larkin, AUS (2015)- World Junior Record: 1:48.02 – Kliment Kolesnikov, RUS (2017)
World Cup Record: 1:46.11 – Arkady Vyatchanin, RUS (2009)- Triple Crown Contender: Hubert Kos (HUN)
Top 8 Finishers
- Hubert Kos (HUN)- 1:45.12 **New World Record
- Thomas Ceccon (ITA) 1:47.49
- Lorenzo Mora (ITA)- 1:50.32
- Tomoyuki Matsushita (JPN)- 1:50.53
- Enoch Robb (AUS)- 1:50.733
- Kacper Stokowski (CLB)- 1:50.99
- Joshua Edwards-Smith (AUS)- 1:51.10
- Yeziel Morales (PUR)- 1:51.56
Hubert Kos had won the 200 back at both of the previous stops this year, but without coming within a second of his own Hungarian record. At the final stop in Toronto, he went after the race with a vengeance.
Mitch Larkin‘s previous World Record in the event had stood since 2015, the year that the Australian won double gold at the long course World Championships, and was the second-oldest . His time of 1:45.63 had stood out of reach for most of the decade since, Evgeny Rylov the only man to come within a second until Hubert Kos‘ World Championship winning swim of 1:45.65 last December.
That put the Hungarian within a whisker of setting his first World Record, and he has clearly been targeting the World Cup Series this fall. He has set Hungarian Records in the 100 IM on three occasions so far, and swum phenomenal times in the 50 back (22.65), 100 back (48.78) and 200 back (1:46.84) through the Carmel and Westmont stops.
This could be just the first of some truly mesmerizing swims from the Texas-based swimmer, with the 100 IM still to come tonight before he swims the 50 back and 100 back on days 2 and 3 respectively.
Kos went out like a rocket in this race, his stroke rate high from the off. He flipped at the halfway mark in 51.60, just 0.25 seconds off World Record pace and a full 1.5 seconds faster than he went out last week in Westmont. Thomas Ceccon, his closest challenger, was nearly a second back at that point.
His lead only grew, and his fantastic underwaters told on the final two 50s. He kept all four 50’s under 27 seconds, a phenomenal achievement in an event that often sees swimmers fall away on the back end.
With 50 to go he was 0.27 seconds under Larkin’s pace, setting himself up for a huge final 50 where he took another quarter second out of the Australian, touching 0.51 seconds under the World Record in 1:45.12.
Split Comparison
| Hubert Kos, 2024 – World Short Course Championships | Mitch Larkin, 2015 – Short Course World Championships | Hubert Kos, 2025 – World Cup, Toronto Stop | |
| 50 | 25.08 | 24.46 | 24.86 |
| 100 | 52.75 (27.67) | 51.35 (26.89) | 51.60 (26.74) |
| 150 | 1:19.58 (26.83) | 1:18.42 (27.07) | 1:18.15 (26.55) |
| 200 | 1:45.65 (26.07) | 1:45.63 (27.21) | 1:45.12 (26.97) |
The big difference for Kos compared to his previous best was on the second 50. Where he was conserving energy back in Budapest in December, he pushed the pace this time around, splitting nearly a second faster. He was nine-tenths slower on the final 50, but was already 1.43 seconds up on his previous pace. More importantly, he was faster than Larkin on all except the first 50.
He is joined in the all-time top 10 by the second-place finisher tonight, Thomas Ceccon, who set a new Italian Record.
Top 10 Men’s SCM 200 Backstroke Performers All-Time
- Hubert Kos (HUN) – 1:45.12, 2025
- Mitch Larkin (AUS) – 1:45.63, 2015
- Arkady Vyatchanin (RUS) – 1:46.11, 2009
- Evgeny Rylov (RUS) – 1:46.37, 2020
- Ryan Lochte (USA) – 1:46.68, 2010
- George Du Rand (RSA) – 1:47.08, 2009
- Ryan Murphy (USA) – 1:47.34, 2018
- Radoslaw Kawecki (POL) – 1:47.38, 2014
- Thomas Ceccon (ITA) – 1:47.49, 2025
- Markus Rogan (AUT) – 1:47.64, 2009
Kos was more than 1.5 seconds faster than his season best in the event, and could throw down some serious swims later on this week. He was just 0.02 seconds off his Hungarian Record in the 100 back in Westmont a week ago, and 0.01 seconds off his best in the 50 back in Carmel a week before that. Both of those look in immense danger right now.
Kos won the first of what he will be hoping are three Triple Crowns with his victory here, taking the $10,000 bonus. With the Hungarian already leading the overall World Cup standings prior to this week, he looks the overwhelming favorite to take the series title.
Incredible new world record! No surprise to see Kos do it after he was so close last year.
I will be a bit sad, however, to see this record go. It always boggled my mind seeing it on every meet recap: the incredible quality of the record (to this day, only 5 swimmers have even broken 1:47); the fact that it was set in 2015, in many ways still part of the post-supersuit “dead period”; and the fact that while Larkin was a fantastic swimmer and regular medal contender, he was not one the giants of the sport (Phelps, Piersol, etc.), outside of a magical 6-month period in 2015.
I remember someone calling Milak’s fly “poetry”. I think he’s the equivalent in backstroke. It’s just a smooth, beautiful and killer backstroke, just “poetry”
Hungarians are technicians.
Gurta was my reference for breaststroke
Like with Phelps and Milak. Kos backstroke reminds me of Rosuke Irie’s backstroke stroke at his peak.
Irie was just poetry in motion.
Ryosuke Irie and Roland Matthes are just Kings of backstroke poetry.
yep
Curious how he will go about that 100 back now. The WR has a very strong back-end, with perfect walls, unlikely to be replicated. If he wants it, I think he’s better off just pushing the first 50 and trying to hang on.
Ha, in the poolside interview, he just casually threw out that maybe he’d be able to get the LC WR in Budapest 2027. Kos, this would be phenomenal to see. You better not be joking around about taking down a Supersuit WR. Would love to see him do it.
I am a bit skeptical, but I hope he does it!
As a swimming fan, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a rubbersuit world record gets broken.
Lochte’s textile best seems super attainable at 1:52.96. It would take a Marchand-esque drop to get Piersol. I agree it seems like a bit of a long shot, but he’s been progressing very nicely in all 3 formats.
Yes. He was 1:53.19 at Worlds in July. And he said he was exhausted in that race. He’d already competed a lot of events. You wonder if he’s close if maybe Bob would let him do what Marchand did, and just drop all his other races to see how fast he could go in the 200M backstroke.
But yeah, that Lochte time definitely seems attainable.
Did not realize 2027 Worlds are in Budapest. This is definitely the plan, getting Peirsol in 2027 at home
Just as I predicted.
I think this is his best swimming ever.
1:45 is no joke at all
I would put the 1:34.2 on the same level or potentially better, but he was more tapered and prepared there.
Meters > Yards
you also would be wrong yea
Mitch who?
Larkin – it’s there in the headline.
We ain’t hating on the great Mitch Larkin here.
Casual
Every time I see him swim 200 back, I think about how he said that in his initial meeting with Bob before moving to ASU, he said he was a 2/4 IMer and Bob strongly encouraged him to start swimming 2 back instead (or maybe in addition), which he hadn’t really considered focusing on before.
Fast forward 3 years: Olympic gold medalist and SC WR holder!!! This race was so beautifully executed.
and the fastest lc time in a decade
I was just about to argue and then realized Larkin’s 1:53.17 was really a decade ago. That’s insane. It doesn’t feel like so long ago.
Also just goes to show how Bob knows his swimmers better than they know themselves often
Hubi is swimming with a whole new level of confidence! Awesome to see!
His time converts to 1:34.6, slower than what he went at NCAAs. So this isn’t really a surprise. The only surprise is that he did it in October which you wouldn’t think is his focus meet of the year.
Using Swimswam converter to make your argument is a bad move, and you see that everyone who understands elite swimming won’t support you.
Swimswam converter always give more advantage to SCY.
Breaking Mitch Larkin’s SCY 200 back is HUGE.
No one got close to it in the past 10 years.
This WR is better than anything Hubi has ever swum in SCY.
“Breaking Mitch Larkin’s SCY 200 back is HUGE.”
I meant SCM 200 back.
I wasn’t surprised because:
1. I believe Kos is better than Larkin.
2. Kos is significantly faster than anyone else in SCY.
3. SCY and SCM are very similar unlike LCM.
4. He’s the best in the world.
It’s tough to make an argument that this WR is better than his SCY swim other than you just prefer SCM more.
You obviously didn’t see Larkin swim live in 2015. It was beautiful to watch. He was on fire for an 8 month period.
I never used the words “surprised”. I said it was “awesome”