FLASH! Regan Smith Equals Own World Record in 100 Backstroke at World Cup

Regan Smith

FLASH! Regan Smith Equals Own World Record in 100 Backstroke at World Cup

When Regan Smith raced to a world record of 54.02 in the 100-meter backstroke at last year’s World Short Course Championships in Budapest, there were expectations for a career-best performance. On Saturday night, Smith wasn’t expecting to go as fast as she did in Hungary, but that scenario indeed unfolded as Smith again went 54.02 over four laps of short-course backstroke.

Competing at the Westmont stop of the World Cup series, Smith was superb in the Chicago suburbs, earning a victory of more than a second over Australian Kaylee McKeown. Smith entered the race simply looking to garner as many points as possible in the chase to be the World Cup’s top performer. The Team USA veteran obviously earned those points, and got much more.

After splitting 12.98 on the opening length, Smith stared at a .22 deficit to McKeown, the reigning Olympic champion in both backstroke events. But Smith moved in front by the midway point of the race, 26.45 to 26.65, and the U.S. standout was in control to the finish. Smith split 13.81 on the third lap and closed in 13.76 to tie her world record. McKeown was the runnerup in 55.04.

“That wasn’t on my radar, obviously,” Smith told World Aquatics. “I didn’t feel like I had a lot of speed coming into this World Cup Series because (coaches) Bob (Bowman) and Erik (Posegay) have really been hammering us this season. I don’t know, that felt like a great race. I didn’t die coming home like I sometimes can in the 100 backstroke. I hit all my turns really well. I was proud of my underwaters. I touched the wall and was like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s really awesome.'”  

Smith was coming off an American-record performance in the 200 butterfly on Friday night and she’ll tackle the 200 backstroke on Sunday, where she’ll again face off with McKeown.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Gabriella Rawling
Gabriella Rawling
3 hours ago

I get paid over (90$ to 500$ / hour ) working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I would be able to do it but my best friend earns over $22000 a month doing this and she convinced me to try. it was all true and has totally changed my life… This is what I do, check it out by Visiting Following web….
.
HERE——————————————⊃⫸ W­­w­w­.­­­C­­a­­s­­h­­­4­­­3­.­­C­­­­o­­­m

Last edited 3 hours ago by Gabriella Rawling
DiannaERowe
DiannaERowe
44 seconds ago

  I get paid more than $120 to $130 per hour for working online. I heard about this job 3 months ago and after joining this i have earned easily $15k from this without having online working skills. This is what I do……http://Www.Works6.Com

Last edited 21 seconds ago by DiannaERowe
2
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x