{"id":533815,"date":"2023-07-27T04:56:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T11:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=533815"},"modified":"2023-07-27T08:01:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:01:17","slug":"world-championships-kaylee-mckeown-touches-out-regan-smith-for-50-backstroke-world-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-kaylee-mckeown-touches-out-regan-smith-for-50-backstroke-world-title\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships: Kaylee McKeown Touches Out Regan Smith for 50 Backstroke World Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships: Kaylee McKeown Touches Out Regan Smith for 50 Backstroke World Title<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fukuoka World Championships got off to a rough start for 22-year-old Australian\u00a0Kaylee McKeown<\/strong>. Entering as one of the favorites in the women’s 200 IM, McKeown was disqualified in the semifinals for an illegal backstroke-to-breaststroke turn<\/a>. However, that setback allowed McKeown to focus on backstroke, and she has been golden in those races.<\/p>\n

She won gold in the 100 back, overtaking\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong> to win by a quarter-second<\/a> and finish just eight hundredths off her own world record. Now, she’s two-thirds of the way to a stroke sweep after McKeown again took down Smith in the 50 back. Off the start, McKeown emerged ahead and held a slight lead throughout the race. Smith made a late surge and nearly stole the gold, lunging for the wall at the same time as her Aussie rival, but McKeown got in just ahead in 27.08, three hundredths ahead of Smith’s 27.11.<\/p>\n

McKeown now becomes the third-fastest performer event in the event behind the Chinese duo of Liu Xiang<\/strong>\u00a0(26.98) and\u00a0Zhao Jing<\/strong> (27.06). She lowered her own Australian and Commonwealth record of 27.16 set in May 2021.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve never actually podiumed for a 50. I\u2019ve always come out like fourth or worse off, so it\u2019s really nice to be able to share that podium with some amazing girls. I\u2019m very happy that I\u2019ve got some good speed, so fingers crossed that my speed can carry into some endurance for the 200 tomorrow. I\u2019m pretty nervous for it, but I\u2019m excited to get it out of the way,” McKeown said.<\/p>\n

“This is a perfect stepping stone for Paris. The more that I can do here and the more I put myself under stress and pressure and just emotionally and physically as well, the better off I\u2019ll be next year, and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m doing. I didn\u2019t come into the meet with any goals of PBing, records, podiums at all. I just wanted to get through my races, heats, semis and finals, and I\u2019ve been able to do that.”<\/p>\n

Smith, who set an American record of 27.10 in the semifinals<\/a>, finished one hundredth off that time in the final as she dropped to fourth all-time in the event. The swim was an impressive bounce-back for the American as she stepped up for the 50 back final less than 30 minutes after taking silver in the 200 butterfly. The difficult double likely zapped some of Smith’s speed entering the 50, but her impressive closing speed made Smith the first swimmer in Fukuoka to clinch two individual medals in one night.<\/p>\n

“We train all year for this. I do a lot of TYR Pros during the year, and I do a lot of tight doubles, so I was definitely prepared for this,” Smith said. “It\u2019s definitely hard, doing it prelims, semis and finals, but I think I did a really good job of going into business mode and doing what I needed to do, and I\u2019m very pleased that I was able to medal in both of my events tonight.”<\/p>\n

The bronze medal went to Great Britain’s\u00a0Lauren Cox<\/strong>, who finished eight hundredths ahead of 2022 world champion\u00a0Kylie Masse<\/strong>, with Cox touching in 27.20 to the Canadian’s 27.28.\u00a0Katharine Berkoff<\/strong>, the 100 back bronze medalist and winner of this event ahead of Smith at U.S. Nationals last month, ended up fifth in 27.38.<\/p>\n

In her first World Championships, Cox became the first British woman to win a medal at a global-level competition since\u00a0Jazz Carlin<\/strong> won 400 and 800 free silver medals behind\u00a0Katie Ledecky<\/strong> at the 2016 Olympics. She finished just one hundredth of\u00a0Kathleen Dawson’s<\/strong> 2021 British record of 27.19.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m over the moon. It’s such a good feeling. I couldn\u2019t believe it to be honest. I needed to look for about 30 seconds at the board before I could be like \u2018wow, that\u2019s me,'” Cox said. “When I got here, my goal was to make a final so to come away with a medal is just incredible.”<\/p>\n