Dawson Blasts 58.18 100 Back Euros Gold As 6th Fastest Woman Ever

2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd, 2021
• Budapest, Hungary
• Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
• Event Site
• Entry List
• Live Results
• Live Stream

UPDATE SINCE ORIGINAL PUBLISHING:

The women’s 100 backstroke final at the 2021 European Championships will be re-swum due to an error with the timing system.

The final will be re-contested at 8:45 pm local time, or 2:45 pm Eastern, on Friday.

“The Organizers cancelled the women’s 100m back’s result, due to the failure of the timing system,” an official statement said.

SwimSwam received confirmation from the organizers that the times done in the original final are cancelled, meaning Dawson’s 58.18 Championship Record will not hold up. She still holds the record of 58.44 from the semi-finals.

Great Britain’s Kathleen Dawson continued her streak of impressive swimming, firing off the fastest time of her career tonight to take 100m backstroke gold at these European Championships. The ace produced a monster effort of 58.18 to top the podium tonight in the only sub-59 second outing, checking in with a new meet record in the process.

Dawson already gave us a taste of what was about to come with her championships record from the semi-final. Last night the 23-year-old University of Stirling swimmer crushed a mark of 58.44 to rank as the top-seeded swimmer. That already sat just .20 off her own PB of 58.24 that rendered her as the 2nd fastest British performer of all time.

Tonight, Dawson opened in a speedy 27.99 and held on to close in 30.13 to nearly break the British record of 58.12 Gemma Spofforth put on the books at the supersuited 2009 FINA World Championships. As such, with her breakthrough gold tonight, Dawson maintains her position as teh 2nd fastest Brit in history but edges closer and closer to British history with each swim.

Behind Dawson tonight was Dutch national record holder Kira Toussaint, who also broke the championships record last night before Dawson’s semi. Tonight, Toussaint settled for silver in 59.02, while Russia’s Maria Kameneva reaped bronze in 59.13.

With her outing here, Dawson now rockets up the all-time rankings to tie Russian Anastasia Zueva as the 8th fastest performer all-time.

Top 8 Women’s LCM 100 Backstroke Performers All-Time

1. Regan Smith (GBR) – 57.57, 2019
2. Kaylee McKeown (AUS) – 57.63, 2021
3. Kathleen Baker (USA) – 58.00, 2018
4. Kylie Masse (CAN) – 58.10, 2017
5. Gemma Spofforth (GBR) – 58.12 2009
6. Kathleen Dawson (GBR) & Anastasia Zueva – 58.18, 2021 & 2009

Dawson has been on the elite backstroking scene for a number of years, having dipped under the minute threshold for the first time in 59.68 at the 2016 European Championships when she claimed bronze. She was also sub-minute in 2017 but suffered some injuries that plagued her performances since then.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, in March of 2020, Dawson produced a time of 59.74 as her 2nd fastest time ever as an indication that her body was getting back on track.

Already this year, she posted a lifetime best of 58.24 before tonight’s swim, further moving in the right direction with Tokyo on the horizon. when