Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 100 metre backstroke

The men's 100 metre backstroke competition of the swimming events at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships took place on September 4.

Men's 100 metre backstroke at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships
Dates	September 4, 1973
Competitors	29 from 20 nations
Winning time	57.47
Medalists
Roland Matthes    East Germany   Mike Stamm    United States   Lutz Wanja    East Germany

Records

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

World record	Roland Matthes (GDR)	56.30	Munich, West Germany	4 September 1972
Competition record	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
4 September	Heat 1	Lutz Wanja	East Germany	59.53	CR
4 September	Heat 2	John Murphy	United States	59.33	CR
4 September	Heat 3	Mike Stamm	United States	59.10	CR
4 September	Heat 4	Roland Matthes	East Germany	58.69	CR
4 September	Final	Roland Matthes	East Germany	57.47	CR

Results

Heats

29 swimmers participated in 4 heats. The eight fastest times qualified for the final. [1][2]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	-	Roland Matthes	East Germany	58.69	Q, CR
2	3	-	Mike Stamm	United States	59.10	Q, CR
3	2	-	John Murphy	United States	59.33	Q, CR
4	1	-	Lutz Wanja	East Germany	59.53	Q, CR
5	2	-	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	59.83	Q
6	1	-	László Cseh Sr.	Hungary	59.88	Q
7	1	-	Rômulo Arantes	Brazil	1:00.17	Q
8	3	-	Ian MacKenzie	Canada	1:00.43	Q
9	2	-	Zoltan Verraszto	Hungary	1:00.49
10	4	-	Carlos Berrocal	Puerto Rico	1:00.59
10	3	-	Mark Tonelli	Australia	1:00.59
12	4	-	Colin Cunningham	Great Britain	1:00.77
13	1	-	Brad Cooper	Australia	1:00.87
14	4	-	Nenad Milos	Yugoslavia	1:01.04
15	4	-	Steve Pickell	Canada	1:01.33
16	3	-	Karim Ressang	Netherlands	1:01.51
17	1	-	Predrag Milos	Yugoslavia	1:01.56
18	4	-	Piotr Dlucik	Poland	1:01.65
19	2	-	Anders Sandberg	Sweden	1:01.92
20	2	-	Jean-Paul Berjeau	France	1:02.03
21	3	-	Jorge Urreta	Mexico	1:02.45
22	4	-	Ignacio Álvarez	Mexico	1:02.60
23	2	-	Enrique Melo	Spain	1:02.65
24	1	-	Ramón Volcán	Venezuela	1:03.02
25	3	-	Helmut Podolan	Austria	1:03.39
26	3	-	Igor Grivennikov	Soviet Union	1:03.83
27	4	-	Carlos Santiago Bermúdez	Puerto Rico	1:03.84
28	2	-	César Lourenco	Brazil	1:03.95
29	1	-	Dimitar Kolarov	Bulgaria	1:04.04

Final

The results of the final are below.[3][4]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	-	Roland Matthes	East Germany	57.47	CR
	-	Mike Stamm	United States	58.77
	-	Lutz Wanja	East Germany	59.08
4	-	John Murphy	United States	59.37
5	-	László Cseh Sr.	Hungary	59.51
6	-	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	59.77
7	-	Rômulo Arantes	Brazil	1:00.37
8	-	Ian MacKenzie	Canada	1:00.60

References

1. "Sporting Details". The Sydney Morning Herald. John Fairfax Holdings. September 5, 1973. p. 19.
2. "Official results". FINA.org. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
3. Krastev, Todor. "Men 100m Breaststroke Swimming World Championship 1973 Belgrade (YUG)". todor66.com. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
4. Fox, Norman (September 5, 1973). "Matthes' brilliance eclipses even Hencken's world record". The Times. London. p. 9.