This week’s ZUMO Performance of the Week goes to Mitch Larkin for his 100 backstroke at the 2019 Australian World Championship Trials in Brisbane. The 25-year-old was just .27 off his own Australian and Commonwealth record this weekend, punching his ticket to South Korea with a 52.38.
That time broke the Australian All-Comers record, making it Larkin’s fastest ever swim on Australian soil. That is also the fastest that Larkin has been since 2015, when he set his current national record, and is quicker than what he won Worlds in that same year. It is also .02 faster than his fourth place performance from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In a post-race reaction, Larkin said that his training has been great this season and he is in good physical shape. “Tonight was just sort of about trusting myself,” said the 2015 World Champion, saying his focus was to not rush his tempo and hold water throughout the race.
Larkin is coming off a historic performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where he became the first swimmer to sweep the backstroke events (50, 100, 200) at the competition and also set a record for most gold medals won in a single Games. He now sits second in the world for 2019 in this event, just behind 2017 World Champion Xu Jiayu (52.27), and nearly half a second faster than Evgeny Rylov, who is the current #3 in the world.
Congratulations to Mitch Larkin on earning ZUMO’s Performance of the Week!
