These Are the Two Biggest Differences Between Stubblety-Cook And Chupkov WRs

The swimming evolution is incredible. Zac Stubblety-Cook last week swam 2:05.95 in the men’s 200m breaststroke at the 2022 Australian Swimming Championship, setting the new World Record in the event.

The video below shows us an amazing technique and a wonderful race management.

Video courtesy of Stefano Nurra

We also have a video of the same athlete with some underwater phases when he won the gold medal in men’s 200m breaststroke at Australian Trials.

Here his technique is flawless and very relaxed. When watching the video, pay attention and do not confuse Zac Stubblety Cook with the other athlete, Matthew Wilson, who is framed most of the time.

The report below shows all the parameters of this World Record.

• Zac Stubblety-Cook lowers 200m breast WR PDF

STUBBLETY-COOK V/S ANTON CHUPKOV

For the devotee of swimming and for the data lovers, it could be interesting to compare the great performance of Stubblety with the previous World Record set by Anton Chupkov in 2’06.12 at the 2019 FINA World Championship.

If we check the final result and the splits, we can see a tiny difference.

A deeper analysis of the data will show us something very interesting.

1. DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT OF THE RACE

We can start to observe the laps and it is possible to see the first small differences.

From the splits by 25m, we can see the first valuable difference between the two performances.

Stubblety-Cook is always faster than Chupkov in the first 25m of every 50m, but always slower in the second one.

The sum of all of the 1st and 2nd 25m splits of each 50 shows us a huge difference.

Chupkov is a bit faster in the second 100m, but he is surely faster in the second part of every 50m. In this way, we can start to understand the different management of the race of these two great athletes.

2. TURNS

Another interesting point are the turns.

We can see that Stubblety-Cook is a bit slower in every turn, but he is faster than Chupkov in every first 25m, as above stated.
A deeper analysis of the turn shows us something really interesting.

Stubblety Cook is faster than Chupkov in the first 15 meters after a turn, but absolutely slower in the last 5 meters before the wall. 1.68 sec slower in 15m is a huge gap compared to 0.82sec faster in 45m.

3. UNDERWATER PHASES

A more precise check of the underwater phases shows us that Stubblety-Cook has an underwater phase which is shorter but faster than Chupkov’s.

If you want to see the details of every underwater phase you can download the race analysis reports of both athletes.

• Zac Stubblety-Cook men’s 200m breast WR PDF
• Anton Chupkov men’s 200m breast WR PDF

4. SWIMMING PHASE

If we check the swimming time from 15m to 45m of every lap, we can see that Stubblety-Cook is faster than Chupkov in this phase of the race.

As regards the swimming phases, it is fascinating to note how the two swimmers are managing stroke rate and stroke length in a slightly different way. Stubblety Cook can swim a bit faster than Chupkov thanks to a bit smaller distance per stroke and a slightly faster stroke rate.

The comparison timetable of the race allows us to see something more.

We can easily see that Stubblety-Cook is slower than Chupkov in the last 5m before every turn with 1.62 sec difference, and in the last 5m of the race with 0.55 sec difference. That means a difference of 2.17 sec in just 20m, this is the point!

Conclusion

Breaking the wall of 2’06” in men’s 200m breaststroke is amazing! Zac Stubblety-Cook showed us something unbelievable.

From the data, we can see that there is room for improvement.

If this awesome athlete would like to improve any further the approach to the wall is the key factor.… We look forward to seeing you soon, Zac.

This story comes courtesy of STEFANO NURRA

• Analyst of Turkish Swimming Federation
• Analyst of Energy Standard​