Daily Times

Regan Smith clocked a world record 57.13sec to win the 100m backstroke at the US Olympic trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Tuesday, throwing down a challenge to Aussie Kaylee McKeown six weeks before the Paris Games. Smith eclipsed the world record of 57.33 set in Budapest in October 2023 by McKeown, who had swum the second-fastest time ever, 57.41, at the Australian trials last week. “It was part of the plan,” Smith said of regaining the record she held back in 2019. She’d signalled her intentions by lowering her American record to 57.47 in the semi-finals and with Katharine Berkoff pushing her all the way at Lucas Oil Stadium she came up with a late push to slice two-tenths of a second off McKeown’s mark.