2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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- LCM (50m)
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The men’s 200m backstroke was on the agenda for day six of the 2025 World Championships, with the all-time performers list being shaken up when all was said and done.
Hungary’s Hubert Kos got to the wall first, ripping a big-time personal best, Hungarian record and European record of 1:53.19 to grab the gold.
Pieter Coetze of South Africa scorched a new African record of 1:53.36 en route to silver while Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard was just off his national record logged last night as he earned bronze.
For Kos, the 22-year-old entered tonight’s final as the 3rd seed after producing a mark of 1:54.64 yesterday, the 4th-best time of the Bob Bowman-trained swimmer’s career.
Tonight, however, Kos entered entirely new territory, dipping beneath the 1:54 threshold for the first time in his already-impressive career.
His 1:53.19 performance overtook his own previous Hungarian benchmark of 1:54.14 notched en route to becoming the 2023 World Championships gold medalist.
The former European record stood at the 1:53.23 Russian Olympic medalist Evgeny Rylov put on the books at the 2021 Russian Championships.
| Kos’ New 1:53.19 European Record | Rylov’s Old 1:53.23 European Record | Kos’ Old 1:54.14 Hungarian Record |
| 26.17 | 26.89 | 27.04 |
| 28.47 | 27.89 | 28.78 |
| 28.60 | 29.34 | 29.05 |
| 29.95 | 29.24 | 29.17 |
Kos now represents the 5th-swiftest men’s 2back performer of all time.
Top 10 Men’s LCM 200 Backstroke Performers All-Time
- Aaron Peirsol (USA) – 1:51.92, 2009
- Ryosuke Irie (JPN) – 1:52.51, 2009
- Ryan Lochte (USA) – 1:52.96, 2011
- Mitch Larkin (AUS) – 1:53.17, 2015
- Hubert Kos (HUN) – 1:53.19, 2025
- Evgeny Rylov (RUS) – 1:53.23, 2021
- Pieter Coetze (RSA) – 1:53.36, 2025
- Tyler Clary (USA) – 1:53.41, 2012
- Ryan Murphy (USA) – 1:53.57, 2018
- Xu Jiayu (CHN) – 1:53.99, 2018
Kos boasts an incredibly impressive long course resume, having earned 6 European Championships medals, 3 World Championships medals and Olympic gold. His time tonight would have handily beaten the 1:54.26, which topped the podium at last year’s Games.
Tonight marks Kos’ second medal of these championships after having earned bronze during last night’s men’s 200m IM event.
Of note, Jan Cejka of Czechia produced a new national record of 1:55.37 to claim 6th place. That erased the 1:55.46 he turned in during the semi-finals.
Finally some movement in this event
It’s amazing that Lochte still has the textile WR. In my opinion, his time would be as fast or faster than Piersol if it weren’t for the suit.
He said he was incredibly tired (mentally and physically) by this point, after a much tougher schedule than he’s used to. Said it was always supposed to be a learning experience, and he would have been happy even if he didn’t win here, since he wanted to see if he could put down fast times in more events and win more than one medal.
Let’s see Marchand’s 200 back
At minimum he’s prob a top 3 200 backstroker in the world right now