Tancock: WR - 24.47 50m Backstroke
2008-04-02
Craig Lord
The British backstroker has shattered the world record of 24.80 held by Thomas Rupprath; Gregor Tait sets Commonwealth record of 1:56.84 in 200m backstroke

Liam Tancock, 22, set the British Olympic trials in Sheffield alight when he shattered the global mark in the 50m backstroke to become the first British man in history to hold a world backstroke record.

His 24.47sec blast - 0.33sec inside the world mark set by Thomas Rupprath, of Germany, on his way to the 2003 world title - unfolded down the first length of a 200m heat in which Gregor Tait (Edinburgh) soon passed the new world record holder on his way to a 1:56.84 British record, just 0.09sec shy of the Commonwealth mark set by Hayden Stoeckel (AUS) last week at trials in Sydney.

Tancock - pre-selected to race the 100m at the Olympic Games in Beijing after winning two bronze medals, in the 50m and 100m, at the world championships a year ago - then eased off to finish the 200m in 2:16.97 for 45th out of 46, the only swimmer behind him a 14-year-old called Lewis Dyson, for whom the result sheet will be a precious souvenir in the years ahead.

Tancock looked fantastic, solid, streamlined, his stroke holding to the speedy end. He was a boiling mass of controlled energy. The suit helped to promote a feeling of balance and a sense of skimming the surface, he said. 'I was swimming on top of the water'. The new all-time top 5:


1 24.47 Tancock (GBR) 2008
2 24.80 Rupprath (GER) 2003
3 24.84 Bal (USA) 2007
4 24.94 Grigoriadis (GRE) 2008
5 24.98 Zandberg (RSA) 2007

Earlier in the day, Tancock had added the 200m medley to his Beijing programme behind the man who deprived him of the Commonwealth record of 1:57.79. James Goddard's 1min 57.72sec is fourth fastest in history, Tancock's best the first fastest. Goddard (coached by Ian Turner at Loughborough) will threaten Tait in the 200m backstroke final tomorrow morning.

On the non-Olympic 50m backstroke, Tancock's Commonwealth record had stood at 24.84, while his new speed boosted the tally of records set in three days of trials in Sheffield stood at one world, one European, six Commonwealth and 13 British standards. Tancock, not required to race the 100m here at trials, had had no intention of qualifying for the Games in the 200m.

Britain has not written its name on the world record books in the all-important long-course (50m Olympic) pool since Adrian Moorhouse equalled his own global mark in the 100m breaststroke at Crystal Palace in London in August 1990. He lost the mark in January 1991, since which time no Briton has graced the world-record books.

Tancock, coached by Ben Titley at Loughborough University, said: 'I've been around the 24.80 mark for ages. There have been quite a few guys around that time for a while. It [the record] needed to go. I thought 'why not'. This was all about the 100m, not the 50 - but world record? Yeah, pretty impressive. I don't know who'll be most impressed: me, my family or my friends. Obviously, I'm chuffed to bits. I don't think it'll sink in for a while.' He aims to be on fire again at the world short-course championships in Manchester next week.