Qin Broke world record
In a dominant swim, China’s Qin Haiyang broke the men’s 200 breaststroke world record in a time of 2:05.48 at Swimming World Championship, 2023 Fukuoka Japan. Qin’s performance wiped out Zac Stubblety-Cook‘s mark of 2:05.95 in 2022. Qin also handed Stubblety-Cook, who was the defending world and Olympic champion, his first finals loss in the 200 breast since July 2019.QIN is 4th world record holder since World Championship, in 2017.
Prior to winning the 200 breast, Qin also won the 50 and 100 breast, meaning that he has swept the breaststroke events at these World Championships. He is the first swimmer to sweep the 50, 100, and 200 in any stroke at Worlds.
All-Time Top Performers, Men’s 200-Meter Breaststroke:
- Qin Haiyang (CHN) — 2:05.48
- Zac Stubblety-Cook (AUS) — 2:05.95
- Anton Chupkov (RUS) — 2:06.12
- Shoma Sato (JPN) — 2:06.40
- Leon Marchand (FRA) — 2:06.59
Qin and Stubblety-Cook have very different racing strategies. With Qin being a sprinter, he took his race out considerably faster than Stubblety-Cook at Worlds and was over a second ahead of him for the majority of his race. Stubblety-Cook had a faster closing split than Qin both at Worlds and when he swam his world record, but the gap was just too much to overcome between the two.
Splits Comparison:
| QIN HAIYANG, 2023 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (CURRENT WORLD RECORD) | ZAC STUBBLETY-COOK, 2023 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS | ZAC STUBBLETY-COOK, 2022 AUSTRALIAN TRIALS (FORMER WORLD RECORD) | |
| 50m | 28.53 | 29.50 | 29.43 |
| 100m | 32.19 | 32.45 | 32.46 |
| 150m | 32.64 | 32.45 | 32.43 |
| 200m | 32.12 | 32.00 | 31.63 |
| Total | 2:05.48 | 2:06.40 | 2:05.95 |
Qin now has four gold medals from these World Championships. The only other swimmer that is able to match his gold medal count is Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan (who has two individual and two relay golds).