2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
Markus Thormeyer took full advantage of the opportunity he was given in the men’s 200 back semi-finals, breaking a 10-year-old Canadian Record and qualifying for the final after being a last-minute replacement.
China’s Xu Jiayu was a late scratch from the event, pulling out at 6:36 p.m. local time with the session starting at 8:00. With Thormeyer placing 17th in the heats in a time of 1:58.16, he was bumped up into the semis.
Swimming out in lane 8 in the first semi, the 21-year-old clocked a time of 1:56.96 to extinguish the super-suited 2009 National Record of 1:57.34 held by Matt Hawes. Thormeyer’s previous best was 1:57.42 from World Trials back in April.
The University of British Columbia product ended up being the fifth-fastest swimmer overall to advance to the final, with defending champ Evgeny Rylov the only one sub-1:56 in 1:55.48.
SPLIT COMPARISON
Thormeyer split the race very similarly to how he did in April, with the biggest difference coming on the last 50 where he was almost three-tenths quicker. Hawes was more conservative on the opening 50 when he swam his race, but managed to keep all four laps under 30.
| Hawes, 2009 Trials | Thormeyer, 2019 Trials | Thormeyer, 2019 Worlds |
| 28.21 | 27.86 | 27.69 |
| 57.73 (29.52) | 57.38 (29.52) | 57.06 (29.37) |
| 1:27.50 (29.77) | 1:27.04 (29.66) | 1:26.87 (29.81) |
| 1:57.34 (29.84) | 1:57.42 (30.38) | 1:56.96 (30.09) |
Tomorrow night will mark his first individual World Championship final.
…and the saying goes, “All you need is a lane…”! Great job on the record! 👏👏👏
Happy to see him make the most of the opportunity given his meet had been underwhelming. I hope he has fun with it tomorrow! Relax and see what happens 🙂