Zac Stubblety-Cook Scorches World Record with 2:05.95 200 Breast

2022 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, May 18 – Sunday, May 22, 2022
• SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park, South Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entry List
• Live Results
• Live Stream (Amazon Prime)
• World Championships Qualifying Criteria

MEN 200 BREAST FINALS

• World Record: 2:06.12 – Anton Chupkov (2019)
• World Junior Record: 2:09.39 – Qin Haiyang (2017)
• Australian Record: 2:06.28 – Zac Stubblety-Cook (2021)
• Commonwealth Record: 2:06.28 – Zac Stubblety-Cook (2021)
• FINA ‘A’ Cut: 2:10.32

Podium:

1. Zac Stubblety-Cook (CHAND) – 2:05.95 (WORLD RECORD)
2. Matthew Wilson (SOSC) – 2:10.14
3. Adam Selwood (PROP) – 2:13.68

Coming into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as something of a breakout star last summer, Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook would lead the Olympic field in prelims, semifinals, and finals, ultimately breaking the Olympic Record en route to Gold in finals. Tonight, at the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships, Stubblety-Cook has reinforced himself as the top 200 breaststroker in the world, breaking the World Record in stunning fashion.

The 23-year-old put together a simply incredible race, getting out to a 29.43 on the first 50, then descending his splits on the final 3 50s. After a great turn into the final 50 of the race, Stubblety-Cook broke out with a fast tempo stroke to bring him home, splitting a sizzling 31.63 on the final 50 (the fastest split in the field by 2.5 seconds), putting him into the finish in a final time of 2:05.95.

With the swim, Stubblety-Cook not only broke the Australian Record, All Comers Record, Commonwealth Record, and World Record, he also became the first man in history to break 2:06 in the event. Swimmers have gone 2:06 16 times in swimming history, and now we finally have a 2:05.

Here is a split comparison between Stubblety-Cook’s swim tonight, his previous Australian Record of 2:06.28, his Olympic Record swim of 2:06.38, and the previous World Record of 2:06.12, which was held by Russia’s Anton Chupkov:

The difference in race strategy between Stubblety-Cook and Chupkov is interesting. Stubblety-Cook is consistently faster on the first 100, but Chupkov was exceptional on the 3rd 50 of his World Record performance, out-splitting Stubblety-Cook tonight by 0.42 seconds. Although Chupkov also came home in a 31-point on the final 50 in his WR race, Stubblety-Cook was faster tonight, splitting 31.63.

Here are the all-time top 5 performers in the LCM 200 breast:

Here are the top 10 all-time performances in the LCM 200 breast:

As the all-time rankings show, Stubblety-Cook has very quickly become the premier men’s 200 breaststroker in the world, having swum 3 of the 4 fastest times in history just in the past 11 months.