# Swimming at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre backstroke

The men's 200 metre backstroke competition of the swimming events at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships was held on July 28 with the heats and the semifinals and July 29 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 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 1:51.92 | Rome | July 31, 2009 |

## Results
### Heats

32 swimmers participated in 5 heats.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | Tyler Clary | United States | 1:56.32 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Péter Bernek | Hungary | 1:57.23 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | Stanislav Donets | Russia | 1:57.30 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:57.34 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 5 | Zhang Fenglin | China | 1:57.37 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:57.58 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 3 | Kazuki Watanabe | Japan | 1:57.62 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 5 | Radosław Kawęcki | Poland | 1:57.97 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 7 | Nick Driebergen | Netherlands | 1:58.10 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 1 | Tobias Oriwol | Canada | 1:58.19 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 8 | Yakov-Yan Toumarkin | Israel | 1:58.21 | Q, NR |
| 12 | 3 | 2 | Sebastiano Ranfagni | Italy | 1:58.26 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | 8 | Leonardo de Deus | Brazil | 1:58.29 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 2 | Yannick Lebherz | Germany | 1:58.30 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 6 | Benjamin Stasiulis | France | 1:58.42 | Q |
| 16 | 1 | 5 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 1:58.48 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 3 | Chris Walker-Hebborn | Great Britain | 1:58.59 | |
| 18 | 1 | 6 | Darren Murray | South Africa | 1:58.73 | |
| 19 | 2 | 7 | Matthew Hawes | Canada | 1:58.84 | |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Cheng Feiyi | China | 1:59.08 | |
| 21 | 2 | 6 | Ashley Delaney | Australia | 2:00.15 | |
| 22 | 1 | 3 | Mattias Carlsson | Sweden | 2:00.44 | NR |
| 23 | 4 | 8 | Mitch Larkin | Australia | 2:00.52 | |
| 24 | 3 | 6 | Gareth Kean | New Zealand | 2:00.74 | |
| 25 | 2 | 1 | Kim Ji-Heun | South Korea | 2:01.06 | |
| 26 | 1 | 4 | Sebastian Stoss | Austria | 2:01.13 | |
| 27 | 1 | 2 | Pedro Medel | Cuba | 2:02.16 | |
| 28 | 1 | 7 | Jean-François Schneiders | Luxembourg | 2:03.68 | |
| 29 | 1 | 1 | Abdullah Al-Tuwaini | Kuwait | 2:07.63 | |
| 30 | 1 | 8 | Awse Ma'aya | Jordan | 2:12.22 | |
| – | 3 | 7 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | | DNS |
| – | 4 | 5 | James Goddard | Great Britain | | DNS |

### Semifinals

The semifinals were held at 19:23.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:55.65 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:55.96 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Radosław Kawęcki | Poland | 1:57.15 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Sebastiano Ranfagni | Italy | 1:57.96 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | Péter Bernek | Hungary | 1:58.14 | |
| 6 | 1 | Yannick Lebherz | Germany | 1:58.56 | |
| 7 | 8 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 1:58.95 | |
| 8 | 2 | Tobias Oriwol | Canada | 1:59.45 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Tyler Clary | United States | 1:56.00 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Zhang Fenglin | China | 1:56.70 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Kazuki Watanabe | Japan | 1:57.97 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Stanislav Donets | Russia | 1:58.00 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Nick Driebergen | Netherlands | 1:58.08 | |
| 6 | 8 | Benjamin Stasiulis | France | 1:58.19 | |
| 7 | 1 | Leonardo de Deus | Brazil | 1:59.77 | |
| 8 | 7 | Yakov-Yan Toumarkin | Israel | 1:59.92 | |

### Final

The final was held at 18:10.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:52.96 |
| | 5 | Ryosuke Irie | Japan | 1:54.11 |
| | 3 | Tyler Clary | United States | 1:54.69 |
| 4 | 6 | Zhang Fenglin | China | 1:56.39 |
| 5 | 2 | Radosław Kawęcki | Poland | 1:57.33 |
| 6 | 8 | Stanislav Donets | Russia | 1:57.36 |
| 7 | 7 | Sebastiano Ranfagni | Italy | 1:57.49 |
| 8 | 1 | Kazuki Watanabe | Japan | 1:57.82 |