{"id":592797,"date":"2024-07-28T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T20:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=592797"},"modified":"2024-07-29T01:40:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T08:40:18","slug":"paris-olympics-day-2-semifinals-xu-jiayu-blasts-52-02-in-100-back-semis-hunter-armstrong-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-2-semifinals-xu-jiayu-blasts-52-02-in-100-back-semis-hunter-armstrong-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 2 Semifinals: Xu Jiayu Blasts 52.02 in 100 Back Semis; Hunter Armstrong Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 2 Semifinals: Xu Jiayu Blasts 52.02 in 100 Back Semis; Hunter Armstrong Out<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 28-year-old Chinese veteran who has not reached the podium at a major international competition in five years will now swim for Olympic gold from lane four while an American favorite was left out of a deep semifinal field.<\/p>\n

Xu Jiayu<\/strong> was the star of the show in the men’s 100 backstroke semifinals, going out under world-record pace in 24.89 before coming in at 52.02, his quickest mark since clocking 51.86 in 2019. That mark left Xu just one hundredth off the then-world record, held by\u00a0Ryan Murphy<\/strong> at 51.85. Xu previously won Olympic silver in the 100 back eight years ago in Rio, and he won back-to-back world titles in 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Thomas Ceccon<\/strong>, the man who broke Murphy’s world record in 2022 with a time of 51.60, blasted through the first semifinal heat to claim the No. 2 spot alongside Xu for the final. Ceccon had qualified 12th for the semifinals, but he was dynamite coming home as he moved into the lead in 52.58, five hundredths ahead of a tie between France’s\u00a0Yohann Ndoye-Brouard<\/strong> and South Africa’s\u00a0Pieter Coetze<\/strong> in 52.63. Coetze’s time knocked 15-hundredths off his own African record set last year.<\/p>\n