The final of the 100m Backstroke Swimming at the FINA World Championships 2019 in Gwangju saw a thrilling contest. Canada’s Kylie Masse, who won in Budapest with a new WR, turned 4th at the halfway mark but produced an amazing homecoming leg to retain her title.
The fight for the minor spoils was absolutely tight, three swimmers hit the wall in a span of 0.11sec, Aussie Minna Atherton just out-touched USA’s Olivia Smoliga and the other Canadian Taylor Ruck. Interestingly, Kathleen Baker, who broke Masse’s WR last August and was silver medallist in 2017, could only finish tied 6th.