Browsing: World Record

Two days after wearing a T-shirt stating “I am the swimmer”, in protest against the Japanese Swimming Federation restricting Japanese swimmers to use only Mizuno, Descente or Asics swim suits, Kosuke Kitajima breaks the 200 meter breaststroke world record, wearing a Speedo LZR Racer at the Japan Open. The new world record is 2:07.51, beating the 2:08.50 set by Brendan Hansen at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships.

Source: SwimInfo

Two world records fell at the Australian Grand Prix yesterday. Libby Trickett broke the 100 butterfly world record with a time of 55.74, beating Felicia Galvez’s time of 55.89 from two weeks ago. And Leisel Jones lowered her own 100 breaststroke world record from 1:03.86 to 1:03.72. Read here and here at SwimInfo.

Germanys Britta Steffen set a new European Record at the German Olympic trials today, breaking her own and until recently global standard of 53.30 with the new time of 53.20. This was not in a Speedo LZR Racer, but in an Adidas PowerWeb full body suit. Sources: SwimNews and SwimInfo.

Bernard broke the opposition and softened up the record with the fierce speed of his first length.

“I always went out very fast. If you think before the race that the end will be tiring you’ll never make it,” he said.

He acknowledged there had been a change in approach to the classic 100m race, with the emphasis now on power rather than technique as exemplified by past master Alexander Popov and Van den Hoogenband, who was not well enough to swim the event here.

“Yes, it’s more power, but power always with technique. Without technique it’s very difficult to swim,” Bernard said.

Source: tvnz.co.nz

Some 8 years ago, a wise man at the Olympiastützpunkt Hamburg told us students, that he expected the underwater dolphin kicks in backstroke to be where the biggest performance improvements would be made in swimming technique the coming years.

Watch this video from the 200 backstroke final in Manchester this weekend, and notice how equal the two leading swimmers are, until Rogan (yellow cap) stays underwater just that little bit more after the last turn, that makes the difference between a world record and number two.

Austria’s Markus Rogan lowers the 200 backstroke world record from Ryan Lochte’s 1:49.05 to 1:47.84. Croatia’s Sanja Jovanovic lowers own 50 backstroke world record from 26.50 to 26.37. USA’s Ryan Lochte lowers own 100 IM world record from yesterday’s 51.25 to 51.15. Australia’s Felicity Galvez lowers Libby Lenton’s 100 butterfly world standard of 55.95 to 55.89, Netherlands’s Marleen Veldhuis betters own world 50 freestyle record from 23.58 to 23.25, and Russia sets world record in men’s 400 medley relay with the time of 3:24.29, where USA’s now former world record was 3:24.38.

Here is the men’s 100 IM final in Italian:

And the 200 backstroke of Markus Rogan in German (Austrian?)

The world record tally is now 12 at the 2008 FINA World Short Course Championships in Manchester, after United State’s Ryan Lochte set a new 100 IM world standard of 51.25, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry took more than a second and a half of the 200 IM world record in a time of 2:06.13, and the Netherlands improved their womens 400 freestyle world record with almost 4 seconds, clocking 3:29.42. Read more about it here, here and here on SwimInfo.

Croatia’s Duje Draganja has set a new world record in the 50 SCM freestyle event, clocking 20.81 where Sweden’s Stefan Nystrands world mark was 20.93. And USA’s Ryan Lochte bettered the 200 SCM IM world record with a time of 1:51.56, more than a second faster than Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh’s world record of 1:52.99. Read here and here on SwimInfo.

Here is the men’s 50 freestyle final in Croatian. I found it in English too, but it is just not the same as hearing those Croatians scream their lungs out :-)