Irvine’s Peirsol Sets World Record

Aaron Peirsol--being Aaron Peirsol--found a way to calm his nerves before the final of the 200-meter backstroke at the Phillips 66 Spring National Championships Wednesday night at Minneapolis.

He talked. And talked some more.

Then the 18-year-old from Irvine went out and seized the world record in that event, finishing in 1 minute 55.15 seconds. The previous record of 1:55.87 was set on Aug. 27, 1999, in Sydney by Lenny Krayzelburg of Los Angeles.

Peirsol, being Peirsol, gave some credit to two girls from Santa Barbara, who spoke with him before his race.

“They kept me calm,” he said. “It was great. If I just sat there the whole time, I would have been freaking out. I was talking, laughing and it really helped a ton. It brings a lot of pressure off you.”

Though he was a silver medalist in this event at the Sydney Olympics (behind Krayzelburg) and a world champion last summer, this accomplishment fulfilled a dream. His sister, Hayley, who finished second in the 800 meters Tuesday, was there as was longtime coach Dave Salo of the Irvine Novaquatics.

“It’s sweet,” said Peirsol, the Newport Harbor High senior who is bound for Texas this fall. “I was extremely elated. It seemed like he [Salo] was more elated than I was. He was crying. My sister was crying. A couple of other people were crying. I think I was the only one of the few that wasn’t. I was too tired to cry.”

This was his first long-course swim at this distance since last summer.

Peirsol knew something special could happen when he went 1:57.19 in the morning preliminaries. His winning time at the World Championships in July was 1:57.13.

“That’s one of my best times ever,” he said of the preliminary race. “To do that, I really felt confident going into tonight. I was more relaxed than I was this morning.... It’s the smartest swim I ever swam.”