2025 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 2-7, 2025
- Lublin, Poland
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Recaps:
The semi-finals of the men’s 100 backstroke transpired on day three of the 2025 European Short Course Championships, setting us up for a fierce battle for medals for tomorrow night’s main event.
Capturing the 8th seed this evening was 18-year-old John Shortt of Ireland, with the teen putting up his second national record of the competition.
Shortt already made major noise for his country here in Poland by reaping gold in the 200m back, establishing a swift new national benchmark of 1:47.89 in the process. That also nailed a new European Junior, World Junior and Championship record.
In this shorter event, Shortt stopped the clock at a rapid 50.16 to put his hat in the ring for a potential medal. His outing sliced .01 off Olympian Shane Ryan‘s former mark of 50.17 logged during the 2020 International Swimming League (ISL) season.
This evening Shortt split 11.98/12.50/12.79/12.89 to sneak into the final, overtaking his previous personal best of 51.21 notched during the prelims of the event at last year’s Short Course World Championshps.
Shortt still has his work cut out for him, however, with British national record holder Ollie Morgan leading the pack in 49.62 followed by two additional sub-50-second swimmers. Plus, there’s Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon of Italy lurking as part of a three-way tie for 4th seed.
