World Championships: Hunter Armstrong Maintains Momentum in 100 Backstroke; Ryan Murphy Chasing Elusive Title

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World Championships: Hunter Armstrong Maintains Momentum in 100 Backstroke; Ryan Murphy Chasing Elusive Title

Two months ago, Hunter Armstrong packaged the finest meet of his career at the United States International Team Trials. In addition to setting a world record in the 50-meter backstroke, Armstrong edged 2016 Olympic champion Ryan Murphy for top honors in the 100 back. It was certainly a momentum-building competition for the Ohio State product, and his roll continued on Sunday morning at the World Championships in Budapest.

Racing the preliminaries of the 100 backstroke, Armstrong registered the only sub-53 performance of the session and took the top seed for the semifinals begind a time of 52.81. The American’s effort was well clear of the 53.16 mark of Japanese veteran Ryosuke Irie, who will be seeded second when the semifinals are held in the evening at the Duna Arena. Armstrong was out in 25.48 and came home in 27.33.

Greece’s Apostolos Christou and Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard followed in the third and fourth positions, thanks to respective swim sof 53.21 and 53.22. The fifth spot was occupied by Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk, who touched the wall in 53.33.

In pursuit of the only accolade missing from his resume, a world title, Murphy checked in with the sixth-fastest time of the morning, a 53.42 that placed the American star just ahead of China’s Xu Jiayu, who clocked 53.45. Xu is the two-time defending world champion.

Missing from the action was reigning Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov, who is serving a suspension from FINA for partaking in a public rally that supported Russian President Vladimir Putin and his country’s invasion of the Ukraine. No Russian athletes are competing in Budapest as a result of FINA’s ban of the nation for its political actions.

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