Anton Chupkov Cracks World Record Apart In 2:06.12 After Overhauling Matt Wilson In Last Lap Fightback
26 July 2019, 05:51am
World Swimming Championships (Anton Chupkov, Matthew Wilson, Ippei Watanabe, 2:06.12)
Gwangju
Day 6 Finals (Men’s 200m breaststroke)
If Russian Anton Chupkov is due a bonus for his bionic 2:06.12 world record for gold over four laps breaststroke, he might consider throwing a coin to Matt Wilson, who claimed silver in 2:06.68, just 0.01sec outside the world record the Australian equalled in semis yesterday.
Pace-setter for all but the last 15 metres of the race, Wilson scorched a blazing trail inside world-record pace for three laps of the four before Chupkov, last of the eight finalists at the first and second turns and fifth at the last, stormed home.
The Japanese challenger who had held the world record that Wilson equalled yesterday, Ippei Watanabe, took bronze in 2:06.73.
Only two years has passed since the 2:07 mark was broken. Today, 2:06 was left trembling.
Chupkov, Olympic bronze medallist at Rio 2016, and Wilson have known a gold and silver before. Four years ago in Singapore at the World Junior Championships, Chupkov claimed gold in the 200m final, his 2:10.19 a meet record, and Wilson the bronze in 2:11.23.
Chupkov was the third world record of the day, after pioneering standards from Americans Caeleb Dressel and Regan Smith in semi-finals.
| 1 | CHUPKOV | Anton |  RUS |
2:06.12 | WR | |||||
| 2 | WILSON | Matthew |  AUS |
2:06.68 | ||||||
| 3 | WATANABE | Ippei |  JPN |
2:06.73 | ||||||
| 4 | STUBBLETY-COOK | Zac | AUS |
2:07.36 | ||||||
| 5 | KOCH | Marco |  GER |
2:07.60 | ||||||
| 6 | WILSON | Andrew |  USA |
2:08.10 | ||||||
| 7 | BALANDIN | Dmitriy |  KAZ |
2:08.25 | ||||||
| 8 | PERSSON | Erik |  SWE |
2:08.39 |
More to come…