Olympic champion Hubert Kós has been just about as solid as its possible to be on 2025 World Cup tour but his run of back-to-back backstroke victories had a fat cherry and $10,000 slapped on the icing this evening in Toronto when the Hungarian set the first World record of his career.

Kós was open of two swimmers making history in Toronto today:

Liendo 1st Black Swimmer & 2nd Canadian Since Gery in 1990 To Claim S/C 100 ′ Fly World Record

At the home and last round of the 2025 World Cup in Toronto, Josh Liendo goes 10.26sec, 22.28 at half-way & is still 0.2 shy of Swiss ace Noe Ponti’s WR pace at the last turn. He then nails a 12.86 homecomer for his first World mark as 11th Canadian man to hold a world swim record

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Andras Baronyi, over 100m in 1911, was the last Hungarian man to set a World backstroke record. Kós is the second, and the first to do so over 200m, his 1:45.12 on the opening day of the concluding round of the 2025 World Cup in Toronto coinciding with Hungary's commemoration of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence.

The 200m mark had stood for a decade to Australian Mitch Larkin, who claimed the standard in Sydney at the end of November 2015. Larkin would still have led at the half-way mark before Kós would have edged ahead by the turn into the last 50 and extended his lead a touch on the way home.

Then and now compared:

• 24.46; 51.35; 1:18.42; 1:45.63 - Larkin 2015
• 24.86; 51.60; 1:18.15; 1:45.12 - Kós 2025

Thomas Ceccon, of Italy, made a race of it for a while, and finished second well clear of the rest on 1:47.49 as the last man home inside 1:50.

Kós, coached by Bob Bowman in Texas, reminded some of the old hands at the Cup venue that his record was the first to be set in the city over 200m backstroke since World short-course records began.

Canadian 100m back Olympic champion-to-be (1992), Mark Tewksbury clocked 1:55.93, a world best time often regarded as the first official short-course standard, at the World Cup in Toronto on 1 March 1991.

It was 2006 when the world 200m mark dipped below 1:50 for the first time , while poly (shiny suits) put the kettle on in 2008 and 2009, before Larkin clocked the first return-to-textile standard six years oil in 2015. Kós is only the second holder of the mark since shiny suits were banned from January 1, 2010.

200m Back World short-course Progression Since 1:50 in 2005:

Kós was not done: he rejoined battle with Longhorns training partner Shaine Casas for a Team Bowman 1-2 finish in the 100m medley at the end of the session:

In other action on day 1:

The Vortex - October 2025: Cup Marks For McKeown, Pallister & Corbeau

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State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

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State Of Swimming +Craig Lord