Xu Jiayu breaks men's 50m short course backstroke world record

Chinese swimmer Xu Jiayu set a new world record in the men's 50m short course backstroke during the National Swimming Championships in Beijing. Competing as the first leg of a 4x50m mixed medley relay, the 31-year-old clocked a time of 22.03 seconds.

This performance improves upon the previous world record of 22.09 seconds, which was set by South African swimmer Pieter Coetze on October 9 at the World Aquatics World Cup in Tashkent. Xu's new time lowers the mark by six hundredths of a second.

In addition to the world record, Xu also achieved a significant result in the 100m backstroke final earlier in the evening, finishing in 48.77 seconds and improving his own Asian record by 0.11 seconds.