American Missy Franklin has looked impressive throughout the competition winning the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke as well as leading the women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay and 4 x 200 freestyle relay team’s to victories.
Going into the 200 backstroke it wasn’t so much would Franklin win, the question was by how much?
As expected Franklin dominated the 200 backstroke winning the event in a time of 2:04.76 nearly two seconds ahead of Australian Belinda Hocking who finished second in a time of 2:06.66.
Franklin’s time was the second fastest that she has swum, next her World Record of 2:04.06.
World Record:
29.53/1:00.50 (30.97)/1:32.16 (31.66)/2:04.06 (31.90)
2013 World Championships:
29.55/1:00.93 (31.38)/1:32.77 (31.84)/ 2:04.76 (31.99)
Hocking and Canadian Hilary Caldwell had a very entertaining battle for third. Caldwell turned at the halfway point in second position with a time of 1:02.33, 14 one-hundredths of a second ahead of Hocking. By the 150 mark Hocking had closed that gap to nine one-hundredths of a second.
Hocking eventually finished second in a time of 2:06.66, six tenths of a second off her own Australian record, followed by Caldwell who collected the bronze in a time of 2:06.80.
With that time Caldwell broke the Canadian record for the third time in the competition, posting a 2:07.81 in the prelims and then a 2:07.15 in the semi-finals.
Coming into the competition Caldwell was ranked tenth in the world with a season’s best of 2:09.31.
Daryna Zevina of the Ukraine finished fourth in a time of 2:08.72.
American Elizabeth Pelton finished fifth in a time of 2:08.98. This is an extremely suprising result for Pelton who looked strong finishing fourth in the 100 backstroke 59.45 less than two tenths away from her lifetime best and coming into Barcelona had a season’s best in the 200 of 2:06.29.
200 IM World Champion Hungarian Katinka Hosszu finished sixth in a time of 2:09.08, Sinead Russell of Canada finished seventh in a time of 2:10.46 followed by Russian Daria Ustinova who finished eighth in a time of 2:11.30.