Ross Murdoch Shares Thoughts on Peaty WR, Selection-Esque Prelims (Video)

^{Reported by James Sutherland.}

MEN’S 200 BREAST SEMI-FINALS

• World Record (WR): 2:06.67 – Ipei Watanabe, 2007
• World Junior Record (WJ): 2:09.39 – Anton Chupkov, 2017
• European Record (ER): 2:06.96 – Anton Chupkov, 2017
• European Junior Record (EJ): 2:09.64 – Target Time
• Championship Record (CR): 2:07.47 – Marco Koch, 2014

1. Anton Chupkov, RUS, 2:07.95
2. Luca Pizzini, ITA, 2:08.52
3. Ross Murdoch, GBR, 2:08.57
4. Kirill Prigoda, RUS, 2:08.63
5. James Wilby, GBR, 2:09.59
6. Erik Persson, SWE, 2:09.84
7. Arno Kamminga, NED, 2:10.00
8. Andrius Sidlauskas, LTU, 2:10.12

Kirill Prigoda was incredibly quick through 150 metres of the first semi-final, but Ross Murdochmade a huge push on the final 50 to edge him at the wall, 2:08.57 to 2:08.63. Murdoch was left out of the 100 breast semis (as the 3rd fastest Brit) despite a very strong prelim swim, and looks dangerous to challenge Anton Chupkov tomorrow. However, Chupkov and Murdoch’s teammate James Wilby will be tough to beat after winning silver and bronze in the 100 behind Adam Peaty.

In the second semi, Chupkov cruised through the first 100 before turning up the heat coming home with splits of 32.42 and 32.16 to overtake Italian Luca Pizzini for the heat win in 2:07.95. Pizzini recorded a personal best and edged out Murdoch’s time for 2nd overall in 2:08.52, and Wilby was back in 2:09.59 which stands up as 5th overall. Pizzini’s swim was also just .02 off the Italian Record, set by Loris Facci back in 2009.