Last summer at the World Championships in Kazan Mitch Larkin won both the 100 and 200 backstroke at the World Championships in Kazan. Although those were amazing accomplishments ever swimmer’s ultimate goal is to stand on top of the podium at the Olympic Games and that is exactly what Larkin is looking to do in Rio this summer.
If his early season performance is any indication of how he will swim in August he is on his way to having another incredible season.
Last summer Larkin posted a lifetime best of 52.40 to win gold in Kazan. Earlier that year he earned his way on to the Australian National Team by winning the Australian Championships in a time of 53.10, which was a lifetime best at the time. That result was achieved after a great deal of preparation time.
This evening in Tokyo Larkin opened his season with a 52.48. His time was impressive, but so was how he handled racing quality competition, beating Ryosuke Irie of Japan by almost a full second.
Unlike his performances in April of last year he achieved this result with very little training under his belt,”I had about three weeks off after the worlds, and about eight weeks back in the pool,” said Larkin. “I picked up quite quickly from where I left off in Kazan.”
Even though he had his sights set high Larkin surprised himself with how well he swam, “I came here hoping to swim sub-53, but I didn’t realise I would go quite so quick. It sets a benchmark for where I am now, and hopefully I’ll move on from that in the next six months for the Rio Olympics.”
With this type of performance early in the season Larkin is on track to having a fantastic summer in Rio.
That Aaron Peirsol WR will be broken at or by Rio Olympics time. The top 6 will be within 0.5s of the record.
dude just turned 20…take a chillpill
Murphy 51.88 @ Trials
And then hopefully he won’t disappear like he did after the prelims of the relay at Worlds.
This might end up being like Popov’s 50 free WR from 2000 – a lot of people get so so close but no one quite gets it :p
Rooting for Larkin though. I do think it will go down next year.
Ever since 2010, this record has been living on borrowed time, Lacourt, Grevers, Xu, Irie, Murphy, and Larkin have all been extremely close the world record.