Xu Jiayu has set a short-course world record of 22.03 in the men's 50m backstroke. The 31-year-old clocked the time on the lead-off leg of the mixed medley relay final at the Chinese Short Course Championships in Beijing. The swim was also a lifetime best and a Chinese national and Asian continental record.
Fastest ever, swum on a relay lead-off
The relay final was swum at the Water Cube in Beijing on the evening of 24 October. Xu led off and split 10.82 over the first length and 11.21 over the second. It was the fastest 50m backstroke ever recorded in a short-course pool.
He raced for Zhejiang Shouxian Valley, whose quartet was completed by Sun Zheyang, Yan Tiaoshan and Lv Yue. The team won gold in 1:37.51. The lead-off time counted as a record because World Aquatics had changed its rules earlier in 2026, letting a mixed-relay lead-off stand as a world mark.
Less than 90 minutes before, Xu had won the men's 100m backstroke final in 48.77, a new Asian record. He said afterwards that he had not expected to break a world record in a relay, having been unsure of his stamina after that earlier swim.
A record that had stood 15 days
The old record of 22.09 belonged to South Africa's Pieter Coetze, who had set it at the World Cup stop in Tashkent just 15 days earlier. Coetze's time had itself overtaken Kliment Kolesnikov's 22.11 from 2022. Xu's 22.03 was 0.06 seconds quicker, and it lowered his own previous best of 22.70 from 2018.
Xu is a long-standing backstroke champion, with the 100m title from the 2019 World Championships and a sweep of the 50m, 100m and mixed medley relay at the 2018 Short Course World Cup in Beijing. At the 2026 Asian Games he won both the 100m and 50m backstroke golds, and in June 2026 he set a long-course Asian record of 23.92. One report placed him among the oldest swimmers ever to set a world record.
The short-course World Championships come to Beijing in December. Xu said the record continued the good form he had shown in the 100m. It also lifts China's hopes in the sprint backstroke before that home meet.
