By Rory Carroll
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) -Regan Smith set the 100m backstroke world record at the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis on Tuesday, touching the wall first in 57.13 to shave 0.2 seconds off Australian Kaylee McKeown’s previous mark.
With just over a month to go before the Games, Smith’s win in the final sealed her place on the U.S. team and sets up a Paris showdown with McKeown, who swam 57.33 in Hungary last year.
“I’m so proud of myself,” Smith said amid cheers from thousands of fans at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“Backstroke is hard for me sometimes but to fight back like this and get that back means a lot.”
Katharine Berkoff was second with a time of 57.91.
Smith, a three-time Olympic medallist who took bronze in the event at the Tokyo Games, still has two more events to contest at the trials.
She said she would not get too carried away celebrating her world record with work to do.
“We’re going to take a couple minutes here to be really proud of what we accomplished and then it’s back to work,” she said.
“I’ve got more things that I want to accomplish this week.”
Bobby Finke predictably cruised to victory in the 800m freestyle final with a time of 7:44.22 to book his ticket to Paris, where he will have the chance to defend his gold medal from Tokyo.
“I’m going to be able to take the experience from last time and all the world championships that we had leading up to this,” Finke said at the stadium, which is home to the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
“The crowd here is amazing, first time in a football stadium. I see people all around, which is really exciting, my family is here.
“To be able to harness all that energy and put it into the race, especially such a long one, is always fun.”
Luke Whitlock finished second and will likely join two-time gold medallist Finke in the pool at Paris for his first Games.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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