# Swimming at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 50 metre backstroke

The men's 50 metre backstroke competition of the swimming events at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships was held on July 30 with the heats and the semifinals and July 31 with the final.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
| | Name | Nation | Time | Location | Date |
| World record Championship record | Liam Tancock | United Kingdom | 24.04 | Rome | August 2, 2009 |

## Results
### Heats

39 swimmers participated in 6 heats.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 24.72 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | 4 | Camille Lacourt | France | 25.03 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 2 | Helge Meeuw | Germany | 25.04 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 7 | Flori Lang | Switzerland | 25.12 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 2 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 25.14 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Junya Koga | Japan | 25.17 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | Guy Barnea | Israel | 25.18 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 4 | Nick Thoman | United States | 25.22 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 5 | David Plummer | United States | 25.22 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 4 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 25.26 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 1 | Aristeidis Grigoriadis | Greece | 25.26 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 1 | Mirco di Tora | Italy | 25.28 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Hayden Stoeckel | Australia | 25.29 | Q |
| 14 | 6 | 3 | Ashley Delaney | Australia | 25.33 | Q |
| 14 | 6 | 6 | Bastiaan Lijesen | Netherlands | 25.33 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 8 | Charles Francis | Canada | 25.43 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 3 | Sun Xiaolei | China | 25.44 | |
| 18 | 5 | 7 | Cheng Feiyi | China | 25.52 | |
| 19 | 4 | 1 | Guilherme Guido | Brazil | 25.58 | |
| 20 | 5 | 2 | Vitaly Borisov | Russia | 25.60 | |
| 21 | 4 | 8 | Pavel Sankovich | Belarus | 25.80 | |
| 22 | 6 | 7 | Daniel Bell | New Zealand | 25.91 | |
| 23 | 3 | 3 | Roko Šimunić | Croatia | 26.07 | |
| 24 | 3 | 4 | Pedro Medel | Cuba | 26.08 | |
| 25 | 6 | 8 | Federico Grabich | Argentina | 26.13 | |
| 26 | 3 | 6 | Jean-François Schneiders | Luxembourg | 26.70 | |
| 27 | 3 | 7 | Oliver Elliot Banados | Chile | 26.72 | NR |
| 28 | 3 | 1 | Zane Jordan | Zambia | 27.12 | |
| 29 | 3 | 2 | Boris Kirillov | Azerbaijan | 27.25 | |
| 30 | 2 | 4 | Emile Bakale | Congo | 28.34 | |
| 31 | 3 | 8 | Antonio Tong | Macau | 28.46 | |
| 32 | 2 | 5 | Alban Laye-Joseph Diop | Senegal | 29.02 | |
| 33 | 1 | 3 | Kerson Hadley | Micronesia | 30.46 | |
| 34 | 2 | 2 | Ahmed Atari | Qatar | 32.37 | |
| 35 | 2 | 7 | Husam Ahmed | Maldives | 33.44 | |
| 36 | 2 | 1 | Mulualem Girma | Ethiopia | 33.85 | |
| 37 | 1 | 4 | Phathana Inthavong | Laos | 35.30 | |
| 38 | 2 | 8 | Mohamed Eltayeb | Sudan | 35.98 | |
| 39 | 1 | 5 | Thierry Videgni | Benin | 42.95 | |
| – | 2 | 3 | Adbulrahman Alishaq | Qatar | | DNS |
| – | 2 | 6 | Folarin Ogunsola | Gambia | | DNS |
| – | 3 | 5 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | | DNS |
| – | 4 | 6 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | | DNS |

### Semifinals

The semifinals were held at 19:14.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 24.62 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Camille Lacourt | France | 24.85 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Nick Thoman | United States | 25.03 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Flori Lang | Switzerland | 25.07 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Junya Koga | Japan | 25.14 | |
| 6 | 7 | Mirco di Tora | Italy | 25.40 | |
| 7 | 1 | Ashley Delaney | Australia | 25.43 | |
| 8 | 8 | Charles Francis | Canada | 25.56 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 24.91 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 24.99 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | David Plummer | United States | 25.03 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Guy Barnea | Israel | 25.09 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Hayden Stoeckel | Australia | 25.20 | |
| 6 | 5 | Helge Meeuw | Germany | 25.20 | |
| 7 | 7 | Aristeidis Grigoriadis | Greece | 25.46 | |
| 8 | 8 | Bastiaan Lijesen | Netherlands | 25.51 | |

### Final

The final was held at 18:35.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 4 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 24.50 |
| | 5 | Camille Lacourt | France | 24.57 |
| | 3 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 24.66 |
| 4 | 6 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 24.82 |
| 5 | 7 | David Plummer | United States | 24.92 |
| 6 | 2 | Nick Thoman | United States | 25.01 |
| 6 | 8 | Guy Barnea | Israel | 25.01 |
| 8 | 1 | Flori Lang | Switzerland | 25.15 |