If there was a lock for a gold medal at the IISA 6th World Championship in Molveno, Italy, it was 20-year-old American Keaton Jones (@keatonjones_swim) in the backstroke events.

The sophomore student from the University of California Berkeley delivered in both the 100m backstroke on Day 1 and the 50m backstroke on Day 2. But 24-year-old Virgile Poirier of France made it much closer in the 50m backstroke today, pushing to 0.2 seconds within of Jones.

50m Backstroke Men’s Final Heat

1. Keaton Jones (USA, 20, IISA bio here) 28.46
2. Virgile Poirier (France, 24, IISA bio here) 28.56 Vir
3. Filip Kolodziejski (Poland, 28, IISA bio here) 29.67
4. Jonatan Kopelev (Israel, 33, IISA bio here) 29.79
5. Kilian Graef (Germany, 19, IISA bio here) 30.52
6. Ivan Hristov (Bulgaria, 19, IISA bio here) 31.27
7. Modoran Cosmin (Romania, 17, IISA bio here) 31.42
8. Cameron Stanley (New Zealand, IISA bio here) 31.50

Jones set a world record in the preliminary heats [shown above at the Golden Goggles Awards with his sister Ezmee Jones, his ice swimming coach Joe Zemaitis, and fellow ice swimmer John Zemaitis].

To say it is cold is clearly an understatement with the night air temperature at -1.1°C and the fresh water in the pool between 1.8°C and 2.0°C where the ice shards need to be removed from the pool before the swimmers can compete.

Watch the live coverage of the World Championship here, organized by Ice Swimming Hall of Fame Honor Swimmer Paolo Chiarino (@paolochiarino).

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