New Asian Record in 50 Breaststroke for KAZ’s Balandin

The prime time rivalry between Great Britain’s Adam Peaty and South Africa’s Cameron Van der Burgh has certainly taken center stage in the men’s 50m breaststroke event, but another swimmer also made his own mark along the way.

During the second semi-final in today’s session, Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin shaved .23 of a second off of his personal best time to register a new national mark and Asian record in the event.  Balandin’s time of 27.24 rendered him in 9th position today and out of the finals, but not before it took down countryman Vlad Polyakov’s record of 27.40. Polyakov, a three-time Olympian and former Alabama swimmer, set his record at the Asian Age Group Championships back in 2009.

Balandin finished in fourth place in the 100m distance earlier in the meet and is scheduled to take on the field in the 200m event slated to begin Thursday.