Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 100 metre backstroke

The men's 100 meter backstroke event at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships took place 23 July. The heats and semifinals took place 22 July, with the final being held on 23 July.

Men's 100 metre backstroke at the 2001 FINA World Championships
Dates	22 July 2021 (heats, semifinals) 23 July 2001 (final)
Competitors	57
Winning time	54.31 seconds
Medalists
Matt Welsh   Australia   Örn Arnarson   Iceland   Steffen Driesen   Germany

Main article: Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows:

World record	Lenny Krayzelburg (USA)	53.60	Sydney, Australia	24 August 1999
Championship record	Jeff Rouse (USA)	54.49	Rome, Italy	11 September 1994

The following record was established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nation	Time	Record
23 July	Final	Matt Welsh	Australia	54.31	CR

Results

Heats

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Markus Rogan	Austria	55.08	Q
2	Steffen Driesen	Germany	55.44	Q
3	Randall Bal	United States	55.47	Q
4	Gordan Kožulj	Croatia	55.56	Q
5	Örn Arnarson	Iceland	55.63	Q
6	Péter Horváth	Hungary	55.67	Q
7	Keng Liat Lim	Malaysia	55.85	Q
8	Stev Theloke	Germany	55.99	Q
9	Aaron Peirsol	United States	56.02	Q
10	Matt Welsh	Australia	56.04	Q
11	Josh Watson	Australia	56.11	Q
12	Blaž Medvešek	Slovenia	56.24	Q
12	Alexandre Massura	Brazil	56.24	Q
14	Vladislav Aminov	Russia	56.25	Q
15	Mariusz Siembida	Poland	56.28	Q
16	Emanuele Merisi	Italy	56.00	QSO
16	Eithan Urbach	Israel	56.00	QSO
18	Viktor Bodrogi	Hungary	56.38
19	Atsushi Nishikori	Japan	56.39
20	Pierre Roger	France	56.50
21	Marko Strahija	Croatia	56.63
22	Miroslav Machovič	Slovakia	56.70
23	Darius Grigalionis	Lithuania	56.77
24	Eduardo Germán Otero	Argentina	56.82
25	Sean Sepulis	Canada	56.97
26	Haruki Takeuchi	Japan	57.09
27	Yoav Gath	Israel	57.16
28	Derya Büyükuncu	Turkey	57.35
29	Daniel Lönnberg	Sweden	57.50
30	Martin Viilep	Estonia	57.77
31	Mindaugas Špokas	Lithuania	58.00
32	Ioannis Kokkodis	Greece	58.15
33	Gary Tan	Singapore	58.52
34	George Gleason	United States Virgin Islands	58.60
35	Juan Carlos Rodela	Mexico	58.62
36	Mark Chay	Singapore	59.28
37	Brendan Ashby	Zimbabwe	59.71
38	Sergio Cabrera	Paraguay	59.80
39	Diego Gallo	Uruguay	1:00.63
40	Eduardo Gil	El Salvador	1:00.73
41	Ignacio Bengoechea	Chile	1:00.74
42	Wu Nien-Pin	Chinese Taipei	1:01.08
43	Christophee Backisavs	Dominican Republic	1:01.86
44	Aziz Toumi	Morocco	1:02.28
45	Chi Lon Lei	Macau	1:03.07
46	Fahad Al Otaibi	Kuwait	1:03.50
47	Wing Cheung Victor Wong	Macau	1:05.58
48	Hsu Kuo-Tung	Chinese Taipei	1:06.13
49	Seung Gin Lee	Northern Mariana Islands	1:07.05
50	Nuno Miguel Cardoso Rola	Angola	1:07.96
51	João Carlos Paquet Aguiar	Angola	1:08.40
52	William Kang	Guam	1:08.77
53	Rony Bakale	Republic of the Congo	1:09.55
54	Ganbold Urnultsaikhan	Mongolia	1:11.77
55	Fahd Bayusuf	Kenya	1:13.93
56	Hojamammedou Hojamammed	Turkmenistan	1:22.13
–	Mohammad Nazeri	Iran	DSQ
–	Mehdi Addadi	Algeria	DNS

Swim-off

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Emanuele Merisi	Italy	56.27	Q
2	Eithan Urbach	Israel	56.61

Semifinals

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Randall Bal	United States	54.93	Q
2	Örn Arnarson	Iceland	55.21	Q
3	Markus Rogan	Austria	55.22	Q
4	Steffen Driesen	Germany	55.26	Q
5	Péter Horváth	Hungary	55.38	Q
6	Gordan Kožulj	Croatia	55.42	Q
7	Matt Welsh	Australia	55.47	Q
8	Josh Watson	Australia	55.78	Q
9	Stev Theloke	Germany	55.82
10	Aaron Peirsol	United States	55.89
11	Vladislav Aminov	Russia	55.98
12	Mariusz Siembida	Poland	56.16
13	Keng Liat Lim	Malaysia	56.29
14	Blaž Medvešek	Slovenia	56.41
15	Alexandre Massura	Brazil	56.52
16	Emanuele Merisi	Italy	56.54

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Matt Welsh	Australia	54.31	CR
	Örn Arnarson	Iceland	54.75
	Steffen Driesen	Germany	54.91
4	Randall Bal	United States	54.97
5	Markus Rogan	Austria	55.23
6	Péter Horváth	Hungary	55.43
7	Gordan Kožulj	Croatia	55.60
8	Josh Watson	Australia	55.98