Swimming World Performance of the Week: Mitch Larkin’s 200 Backstroke

The performance of the week comes all the way down under from the Australian Short Course Championships in the legendary Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. The meet was an amazing showcase all around, with several Australian, Commonwealth, and All-Comer records falling during the four day competition, with Cate Campbell also cracking the world record in the 100 freestyle.

The standout performance, however, came from Australian backstroker Mitch Larkin, who capped off an amazing year with a world record performance in the 200 backstroke. Touching in 1:45.63 to become the first man to break 1:46, the 22-year-old’s performance also counted as his first world record. With that record Larkin also became Australia’s first individual world record holder in six years. Larkin has already had an amazing year that was highlighted by his world championship titles from Kazan this summer and a more recent whirlwind record-breaking World Cup series.

Larkin now holds number one world rankings in the 100 and 200 backstrokes in both long course and short course pools. His 1:45.63 broke the former world record of 1:46.11 set by Russia’s Arkady Vyatchanin in the “supersuit” year of 2009. See video of Larkin’s record-breaking race here.

Congratulations Mitch Larkin on earning the Swimming World Performance of the Week!

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