Zac Stubblety-Cook already had an Olympic gold medal in his keeping and the Australian sensation now also has a world record to show, after producing an exceptional performance at the national swimming championships on Thursday night.
Stubbelty-Cook unleashed a rocketing final lap in Adelaide to win the men’s 200m breaststroke final in 2:05.95 and shatter Russian Anton Chupkov’s world mark of 2:06.12, set in 2019.
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“It’s a bit surreal. It hasn’t really sunk in, maybe over the next few days,” Stubblety-Cook said.
“I was hoping to swim fast and be close to my best.
“Obviously, I’ve thought about it (breaking the world record) but have never thought, ‘That’s it, I want the world record’. But it happened.”
Not since 2008 had an Australian male achieved a world record in a home pool, when Eamon Sullivan twice broke the 50m freestyle mark in the Olympic trials ahead of the Beijing Games.
Matt Wilson, who briefly held the world record in the 200m breaststroke in 2019, led the field for about the first half of Thursday night’s race, before Stubblety-Cook powered home.
“Knowing Matt swims out pretty quick was always a bonus. I felt pretty good at the 100m. I knew I could bring it home pretty fast,” Stubblety-Cook said.
“It’s pretty special. I always had the goal in my mind to be the first man to go 2:05. I’m much more process-driven than outcome-driven. It’s a lot to wrap your head around.”
Australian swimming great Grant Hackett was stunned by Stubblety-Cook’s final lap.
“That last 50 was absolutely superb,” Hackett said on Amazon Prime Video.
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