# Swimming at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre backstroke

The Men's 200 metre backstroke competition of the swimming events at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships was held on 6 August with the heats and the semifinals and 7 August with the final.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
| World record | Aaron Peirsol (USA) | 1:51.92 | Rome, Italy | 31 July 2009 |
| Competition record | Aaron Peirsol (USA) | 1:51.92 | Rome, Italy | 31 July 2009 |

## Results
### Heats

The heats were held at 09:56.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | Mitch Larkin | Australia | 1:55.88 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:56.68 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 5 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 1:56.71 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | Evgeny Rylov | Russia | 1:56.78 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | 4 | Xu Jiayu | China | 1:56.90 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | Tyler Clary | United States | 1:56.92 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 6 | Christian Diener | Germany | 1:57.42 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | Josh Beaver | Australia | 1:57.62 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 3 | Masaki Kaneko | Japan | 1:57.63 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | 7 | Leonardo de Deus | Brazil | 1:57.73 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 1 | Grigory Tarasevich | Russia | 1:57.77 | Q |
| 12 | 2 | 2 | Li Guangyuan | China | 1:58.02 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | 5 | Radosław Kawęcki | Poland | 1:58.09 | Q |
| 14 | 2 | 1 | Corey Main | New Zealand | 1:58.22 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 2 | Luca Mencarini | Italy | 1:58.31 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | 6 | Gábor Balog | Hungary | 1:58.55 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 7 | Yakov Toumarkin | Israel | 1:58.64 | |
| 18 | 3 | 6 | Christopher Ciccarese | Italy | 1:58.79 | |
| 19 | 3 | 2 | Danas Rapšys | Lithuania | 1:59.00 | |
| 20 | 2 | 7 | Benjamin Stasiulis | France | 1:59.05 | |
| 21 | 1 | 5 | Lavrans Solli | Norway | 1:59.23 | |
| 22 | 3 | 8 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 1:59.24 | |
| 23 | 2 | 8 | Carlos Omaña | Venezuela | 1:59.59 | NR |
| 24 | 3 | 1 | Mateusz Wysoczyński | Poland | 2:00.26 | |
| 25 | 4 | 9 | Armando Barrera | Cuba | 2:00.92 | |
| 26 | 1 | 3 | Rexford Tullius | Virgin Islands | 2:01.22 | |
| 27 | 4 | 0 | Roman Dmytrijev | Czech Republic | 2:01.49 | |
| 28 | 3 | 0 | Matias López | Paraguay | 2:01.74 | |
| 29 | 2 | 0 | Lukas Rauftlin | Switzerland | 2:03.00 | |
| 30 | 1 | 6 | Lin Shih-chieh | Chinese Taipei | 2:04.00 | |
| 31 | 1 | 4 | Yeziel Morales | Puerto Rico | 2:04.15 | |
| 32 | 2 | 9 | Lê Nguyễn Paul | Vietnam | 2:04.78 | |
| 33 | 3 | 9 | Vuk Čelić | Serbia | 2:05.54 | |
| 34 | 1 | 2 | Boris Kirillov | Azerbaijan | 2:06.74 | |
| 35 | 1 | 7 | Lushano Lamprecht | Namibia | 2:08.14 | |
| 36 | 1 | 1 | Driss Lahrichi | Morocco | 2:09.14 | |
| 37 | 1 | 8 | Rami Elias | Sudan | 2:19.53 | |
| | 4 | 8 | Apostolos Christou | Greece | | DNS |

### Semifinals

The semifinals were held at 18:57.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Evgeny Rylov | Russia | 1:55.54 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:55.76 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Tyler Clary | United States | 1:56.58 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Li Guangyuan | China | 1:57.12 | Q |
| 5 | 8 | Gábor Balog | Hungary | 1:57.91 | |
| 6 | 2 | Leonardo de Deus | Brazil | 1:57.96 | |
| 7 | 6 | Josh Beaver | Australia | 1:57.99 | |
| 8 | 1 | Corey Main | New Zealand | 1:59.50 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Mitch Larkin | Australia | 1:54.29 | Q, OC |
| 2 | 5 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 1:55.10 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Xu Jiayu | China | 1:55.13 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Radosław Kawęcki | Poland | 1:55.54 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Christian Diener | Germany | 1:57.17 | |
| 6 | 2 | Masaki Kaneko | Japan | 1:57.33 | |
| 7 | 8 | Luca Mencarini | Italy | 1:57.81 | |
| 8 | 7 | Grigory Tarasevich | Russia | 1:58.30 | |

### Final

The final was held on 7 August at 17:40.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Mitch Larkin | Australia | 1:53.58 | OC |
| | 2 | Radosław Kawęcki | Poland | 1:54.55 | |
| | 6 | Evgeny Rylov | Russia | 1:54.60 | NR |
| 4 | 7 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:54.81 | |
| 5 | 5 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 1:55.00 | |
| 6 | 3 | Xu Jiayu | China | 1:55.20 | |
| 7 | 1 | Tyler Clary | United States | 1:56.26 | |
| 8 | 8 | Li Guangyuan | China | 1:56.79 | WJ |