Nikola Acin Breaks Serbian Record In Men’s 50 Backstroke

2025 Banja Luka Open

• May 24-25, 2025
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• LCM (50 Meters)
• Results: “Banja Luka Open” on SwimRankings

Olympian Nikola Acin highlighted the 2025 Banka Luka Open, powering to a Serbian record in the men’s 50 backstroke. He first rattled the now former record in prelims with a lifetime best 25.51. That effort put him just two-hundredths from the record that Djordge Dragojlovic swam at the Serbian Championships in June 2023.

Acin, who swam at Purdue and Michigan during his NCAA career, got under the Dragojlovic’s 25.49 record in the final, swimming a 25.42. It was his second lifetime best of the day; coming into the meet, his lifetime best was the 26.02 he swam at this meet a year ago. Acin dropped six-tenths over the course of the day to break his national record.

While Acin did not hold any current long-course Serbian records before this swim, he was a part of the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay that swam a record 3:12.90 at the European Championships last June in the leadup to the Paris Olympics.

Acin also swam a lifetime best in the 50 freestyle and matched his best in the 100 freestyle. Like the 50 backstroke, he lowered his 50 freestyle lifetime best twice at the meet. First, he undercut his 22.42 lifetime best from the 2024 European Championships with a 22.23. He knocked a hundredth of that time in finals, hitting a 22.22. He swam 48.71 in the 100 freestyle, matching the best he swam in in March this year. His effort in March was his first time breaking 49 seconds.

Acin was under the World Aquatics ‘B’ cut in all three of these events.

More Highlights

• Nikola Simic lowered his 1500 freestyle best by nearly 15 seconds. Simic just finished his freshman year at LSU and came into this meet with a lifetime best of 15:45.89 and swam a 15:31.47 for a total drop of 14.42 seconds. He earned the World Aquatics ‘B’ cut with that swim, getting under the 15:33.46 cut by about two seconds. He also swam a lifetime best in the 800 freestyle, clocking 8:14.54.
• Slovenian Olympian Janja Segel battled Serbia’s Anja Kaljevic in the 200 freestyle. Segel came away with the win in 2:03.27, while Kaljevic swam 2:03.27 for a new lifetime best. Kaljevic also swam a lifetime best in the 400 freestyle (4:21.05) while Segel won the 100 freestyle in 56.52.
• Serbia’s national record holder in the women’s 50 backstroke, Nina Stanisavljevic was within a second of her 28.54 record in the event, swimming 29.36. Stanisavljevic set that record in 2021; earlier this year, she broke 29 seconds for the first time in two years at the Westmont Pro Swim (28.99).
• Kenan Dracic swam his second 100 freestyle lifetime best of the month. After logging 50.88 in Dubrovnik at the beginning of May, Dracic swam 50.83 at this meet for a new personal best. His lifetime best was a 51.05 from the 2024 European Junior Championships coming into the 2025 season. Dracic is the BIH national record holder in the 100 backstroke, but didn’t race that event at this meet.