Xu Jiayu Leads Tight 200 Back Semis; Murphy and Pebley Advance

Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA

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100 back champion Xu Jiayu leads the 200 back semis at the FINA World Championships in Budapest ahead of American Ryan Murphy and Russian Evgeny Rylov into Friday night’s final. Xu went out fast under world record pace but came back to the field on the second half. Xu leads the semi-finals with a 1:54.79 ahead of Murphy (1:54.93) and Rylov (1:54.96).

Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov (1:55.15) broke the world junior record in the semi-finals as he broke his own record from the Russian Nationals earlier in the year when he went 1:55.49. USA’s Jacob Pebley (1:55.20), Japan’s Ryosuke Irie (1:55.79), Hungary’s Peter Bernek (1:55.79) and Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys (1:56.11) will also swim in the A-final.

The United States has won eight of the last nine world titles in the men’s 200 back as Murphy could add on to the tally much like Chase Kalisz winning the 200 IM earlier tonight, adding onto the American history in that event.

Murphy interview:

Pebley interview:

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