2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd, 2021
- Budapest, Hungary
- Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
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23-year old Luke Greenbank took almost a full second off his own British Record in the 200 backstroke in prelims on Friday.
Greenbank dominated his heat, heat 4, of the event and took the top seed overall with a 1:54.67. That breaks his own British Record of 1:55.34 done at the Britsih Swimming Invitation meet in March.
Comparative Splits:
| Greenbank | Greenbank | |
| New Record | Old Record | |
| 50m | 27.02 | 27.43 |
| 100m | 28.61 | 28.9 |
| 150m | 29.5 | 29.7 |
| 200m | 29.54 | 29.31 |
| Final Time | 1:54.67 | 1:55.34 |
When Greenbank swam his 1:55 in March, he broke a record set 11 years ago by James Goddard at 1:55.58.
Greenbank continues to show big drops in the 200 backstroke – after no drops from a 1:56.89 in 2015 as a 17-year old until 2019, he’s now improved over 2 seconds in the last 2 years. His swim now ranks him 4th in the world this season. He also won a bronze medal in the event at the 2019 World Championships.
2020-2021 LCM Men 200 Back
Rylov
1:53.23
| 2 | Ryan Murphy | USA | 1:54.15 | 07/30 |
| 3 | Mitch Larkin | AUS | 1:54.38 | 04/16 |
| 4 | Luke Greenbank | GBR | 1:54.43 | 05/22 |
| 5 | Bryce Mefford | USA | 1:54.79 | 06/18 |
Greenbank’s swim also positions him as the 13th-best performer globally in the history of the event: one spot ahead of Arkady Vyatchanin (1:54.75) and one spot behind Michael Phelps (1:54.65), who was better known as a butterflier and IMer but had plenty of backstroke ability as well.
While he was well ahead of the field in prelims, Greenbank still may need another gear to win gold on Saturday, however: the 2nd qualifier through to the semi-final was the European Record holder Evgeny Rylov of Russia in 1:55.74.
Still, the British Swimming faithful will focus more on the 53.34 he swam in the 100 backstroke final earlier in the meet: a personal best but not a British Record. With Adam Peaty, James Guy, and Duncan Scott closing the medley relay, Greenbank’s backstroke is really the weakest leg for the British men as they seek Olympic gold in the medley relay. But as Greenbank creeps closer-and-closer to the expected 52-lows or 51-highs of the likes of Ryan Murphy, Kliment Kolesnikov, Evgeny Rylov, and Xu Jiayu, that weakness becomes stronger-and-stronger, and a British victory becomes more-and-more likely.
Wait greenbank should be 1.54.67 not 1.55?
Oh my bad, it was the previous time of him didn’t see it 😅
USA needs someone who can drop a 57 high relay split even more now. Even with that they’re probably done for if Peaty goes a 56 low.
The simple math say if Britain can pull a 52 anything on back and a 56 low on Breast the field are competing for silver and bronze. But they are big ifs.
Little catch, Greenbank was 17 when he went 1.56 in 2015. Listed as 18 for record purposes in the UK, but his DOB is Sept 1997, so he was still 17 in Baku.
Nice to see a former Junior star coming good after a few struggles.
Mitch Larkin will not swim the 200BK in Tokyo as it again clashes with the 200IM. Greenbank has to be considered a likely medallist given what he just did.
Larkin hasn’t revealed which event he’s chosen has he?
When he recently went 1.54.3 he said he wished he hadn’t gone so fast which kind of gave it away that he was sacrificing an event in which he’s really competitive. It’s surely been agonising for him but I do think the 200IM suits him slightly better.
I think the 200 IM gives him a more likely shot at the gold, since there’s no clear favorite; but given how many guys are bunched up around the 1:56 mark, he could very well miss out on any medal.
But in the 200 backstroke, I doubt he’ll be able to compete with Rylov for gold. He’ll really just need to stay ahead of Greenbank and/or Murphy for the silver or bronze.
In short, if he wants to go for the gold, then I think he’ll swim the 200 IM. If he’d rather have a better likelihood of getting any medal, I think he goes with the 200 backstroke. It’ll be interested to see what he chooses. Since… Read more »
Would there be any way to restructure the event order to get rid of the 200 back/200 IM double without creating any other conflict between common doubles? I feel like this is the most common double I see in the Olympics that swimmers have trouble with.
Larkin should definitely go for the 200 IM
Worth noting a big backstroke leg from Joe Litchfield in heats earlier this week. Britain’s strength across numerous relays is such that certain key swimmers could find themselves overstretched if they aren’t able to be rested in heats. Greenbank and Kathleen Dawson have been revelations this week, but the strong backup showings of Cassie Wild and Joe Litchfield are equally important. Adam Peaty has always had Wilby and Murdoch able to do a good turn, and Anderson and Hopkin form another such pair.
The weakness going forward may be James Guy, staring down the barrel of 4 relays, and 8 relay legs.on top of whatever his own programme is. British butterfly is still pretty week, especially without the Swiss Army… Read more »
At the Olympics, I almost wonder if the better outcome is to find a way to rest Guy in prelims and have Peaty swim.
I know there’s some politics – they have other fast breaststrokers who would like medals – but with Peaty only having the 100 breaststroke individually, plus I presume finals of the mixed medley, and quite a long gap between the 100 breaststroke and the men’s medley relay…could be worth the gamble?
Peters time is almost as good as Guy..
They can qualifiy with Greenbank, Wilby, Peters and someone else not named Scott
US medley relay is in a precarious position. If Murphy does a 52.XX, the breaststroker goes 59.XX, Dressel goes 49 high, and Held goes 47.XX, then the US would have no chance of winning. For the US to win, Murphy would have to re-break the world record, the breaststroker would have to go 58 mid at most, Dressel would have to go 49 low at least, and Held would have to go at most 46 high.
Well, while nothing is certain until they’ve touched the wall, the U.S. does now have a 58-mid breaststroker, at least, on a flat start. Even if MA doesn’t swim the perfect rate, on a roll he should be able to go 58-mid. We know Andrew Wilson can, because he did so at Worlds.
Also remember that Peaty hasn’t been as good on relays as he has been individually, and remember that with no lead, Scott doesn’t have Adrian to cost off.
At the end of the day, with Murphy 52,9, Adrian 47.6, and Andrew Wilson 58.6 at Worlds, they were only .35 behind the Brits and Duncan Scott’s ungodly split. You could also look at this as “GB needs another… Read more »
So you’re saying that unless they break the WR by about a second, they have “no chance”?… nahhh fam I ain buy it