The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Sejwal betters National record

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 27, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Sejwal betters National record

Sarah Sjostrom sets a championship record

— PHOTO: AFP

MAKING WAVES: Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom sets a record in the 100m butterfly heats at the World swimming championships in Rome.

ROME: Indian boy Sandeep Sejwal bettered his National record by clocking 1min 01.20sec in the 100m breaststroke event on the first day of the FINA World swimming championships here.

Sejwal finished 35th out of 142 swimmers, breaking his own National record of 1:02.19sec.

In the same race, Jayaprakash Agnishwar improved on his personal best timing of 1:06.20sec with a 1:05.07 sec finish.

In the 50m butterfly event, young Virdhawal Khade finished a respectable 57th out of 198 swimmers with a time of 24.32s.

Meanwhile, several swimmers came close to breaking World records at the Foro Italico, but one guy who didn’t go fast enough was defending World and Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan, who shockingly failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 400m freestyle.

Meet records fell in seven of eight events, the only exception being the men’s 400 freestyle. Ian Thorpe’s eight-year-old mark still looks rather daunting, as does his slightly faster world record set in 2002.

Everything else appears to be up for grabs.

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden set a championship record in the very first event, just missing the fastest time ever in the 100m butterfly.

By the end of the session, American Ariana Kukors, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, Australia’s Brenton Rickard, South Africa’s Roland Schoeman, Spain’s Rafael Munoz, the women’s 400 free relay team from Germany, and the men’s 400 free relay team from Brazil also had taken down old championships standards.

Brazil put up the best morning time, 3 minutes, 11.26 seconds, and the top seven teams all broke the championship record set by the Americans at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne (3:12.72).

Germany, led by Olympic champion Britta Steffen, led the women’s 400 free relay at 3:34.74. The top four all went under the previous championship record, Australia’s winning time of 3:35.48 two years ago.

Pellegrini thrilled the home crowd when she touched first in the women’s 400 free, backing off a bit in the middle of the race before posting a time of 4:01.96. She was shy of her own world record, 4:00.41 from a month ago, but did beat the championship record set by France’s Laure Manaudou at the 2007 worlds (4:02.61).

Kukors, part of a youthful U.S. women’s team, led the way in the 200 individual medley at 2:08.53 wearing Jaked’s polyurethane suit. That was far faster than the championship record of 2:10.13, set two years ago by fellow American Katie Hoff, and also beat Julia Smit’s American record of 2:09.34.

Record-breaking feat

Rickard kept up the record-breaking in the 100 breaststroke, his time of 58.98 surpassing Brendan Hanson’s meet record (59.37) from 2005.

Another meet record fell in the men’s 50 butterfly, a non-Olympic event. Schoeman and Munoz both touched in 22.90, breaking Schoeman’s 4-year-old mark of 22.96. They were shy of Munoz’s world record, 22.43, set in April. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport