Complete race footage is courtesy of Universal Sports Network.
Swimswam / Braden Keith coverage of the women’s 100 backstroke at the 2013 FINA World Championships:
This race was extremely competitive at last year’s Olympic Games. This year, it was all the Missy Franklin show. She had no issues on her start, led comfortably at the turn, and then put up the fastest split coming home to take victory in 58.42 – within a tenth of her winning time from last year’s Olympics.
That swim would be the only one of all three rounds that went under 59 seconds, as the runner-up Emily Seebohm from Australia was 2nd in 59.06. She finished the race well, but was unable to get out to her characteristically-fast start, turning four-tenths of a second behind Franklin.
Japan’s Aya Terakawa matched her Olympic bronze with another one here, finishing in 59.23 for 3rd.
American Liz Pelton as 4th in 59.45, which is right around the time she was in the semi-finals. China’sYuanhui Fu gave herself a good shot at the 50, going out very hard but falling back to 5th overall in 59.61.
Simona Baumrtova from the Czech Republic was 6th in 59.84, Daryna Zevina from the Ukraine was 7th in 1:00.16, and Belinda Hocking from Australia was 8th in 1:00.29.