Three records tumble in finale

2009/11/23

SINGAPORE: South Africa's Kathryn Meaklim, American Peter Marshall and Swedish swim queen Therese Alshammar stormed to new world records yesterday as the shortcourse World Cup season concluded in style. In the high humidity of Singapore and at a partially-enclosed aquatic complex, the first day of the meet on Saturday surprisingly saw no new world marks despite 16 being set in Berlin last weekend.

But that all changed with the powerfully-built Kathryn obliterating the women's 400m individual medley record.

She turned under world record time after the butterfly then fell off the pace on backstroke before recovering strongly with impressive breaststroke and freestyle legs to clock 4:22.88s.

It knocked nearly three seconds off the old mark set by Spain's Mareia Belmonte in Rijeka, Croatia in December last year.

Like Kathryn, Marshall has been in sizzling form this year and he broke his own 50m backstroke world record, leading from start-to-finish to touch in 22.61s.

Peter Marshall of US celebrates after breaking the world record with a time of in 22.61s in the 50m backstroke during the World Cup in Singapore yesterday. — AFPpic

His time shaved a fraction of a second off his previous record of 22.73 set in Stockholm earlier this month.

It was left to Therese in the final event of the day to bring the house down once again with the unstoppable Swede smashing her own 50m butterfly mark, touching in 24.28s.

It beat the previous best of 24.46 she set in Stockholm.

Before yesterday's exploits, only Natalie Coughlan of the United States had broken a world record in Singapore, and that was two years ago.

It was a fitting finale to a World Cup season that has also taken swimmers to Durban, Moscow, Stockholm, and Berlin, with 37 world records broken in total.

Those sort of performances are unlikely to be seen again with the vast majority achieved by athletes wearing the high-tech swimsuits that will be banned from Jan 1.

Singapore is one of the last times the controversial suits will be worn.

Kathryn was the standout performer, returning to the pool to upset a jaded-looking world record holder Leisel Jones of Australia in the 200m breaststroke.

The South African came home in 2:20.52, well off world record pace, ahead of Leisel (2:21.31) and fellow Australian Sarah Katsollis.

In other races, Britain's Francesa Halsall set a World Cup best time over the 100m freestyle, hitting the wall in 51.19 ahead of Inge Dekkar of the Netherlands and Germany's Daniela Schreiber.

American world record holder Jessica Hardy comfortably won the 50m breaststroke with Sarah second and Leisel third, while Australia's Jessicah Schipper took out the 200m butterfly title.

Among the men, South Africa's Darian Townsend came close to beating his own record in the individual medley, but slowed after the final 25m to finish in 1:52.49, a second outside his best time. -- AFP