World Championships, Day 5 Finals: Claire Curzan Completes 50-100 Backstroke Double

Claire Curzan: photo courtesy: A.Masini/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

World Championships, Day 5 Finals: Claire Curzan Completes 50-100 Backstroke Double

Claire Curzan continued her golden World Championships when she completed the 50-100 backstroke double with victory over one length in Doha.

The 19-year-old stopped the clock in 27.43 to claim her third gold and fourth medal of the meet, 0.02 ahead of Australia’s Iona Anderson (27.45) and Ingrid Wilm of Canada (27.61) as the trio replicated the 100 back podium.

She said:

“I think the 50m backstroke is super fun, it’s very low pressure and it’s not an Olympic event so you can just really go out there and enjoy it.

“I’d say that bodes pretty well for my 100m backstroke because I now know I can actually get out fast instead of
relying on the final 50m.”

Curzan won four relay medals, including two golds, plus 100m back bronze at Budapest 2022 but Doha has seen her elevated to the top of the individual podium.

Bigger fish await come the Olympics in Paris in July in the form of Kaylee McKeown and Regan Smith and before that, the US trials where a battle royale can be expected with only two slots available and Katharine Berkoff also seeking a trip to the French capital.

But Curzan will take her place with a mentality of maturity, saying:

“I think the mindset to win comes more from the ready room, knowing that you have it in your body somewhere and can go out there and execute.

“We do a lot of training and I rely on my muscle memory when the big moment comes – just knowing I can do
it and execute.”

For Anderson, it was her second silver in as many as World Championship finals, the 18-year-old also the world junior champion.

Wilm claimed her second individual bronze of the meet to add to her medley relay third places at Budapest 2022 and Fukuoka 2023.

Lauren Cox, who became the first British woman to win a global long-course medal since Jazz Carlin at Rio 2016 with bronze in Fukuoka, was 0.04 off the podium in fourth in 27.65.

Theodora Drakou set a Greek record of 27.84 in fifth followed by Adela Piskorska (28.09), Kira Toussaint of the Netherlands (28.18) and Sweden’s Louise Hansson (28.32).

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