FINA World Short Course Championships: Rebecca Soni Leads Way in 100 Breast Semis With American, Meet Record

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 17. USA's Rebecca Soni dropped a 1:04.17 to capture the top seed heading into the women's 100 breast championship heat at the FINA World Short Course Championships. Soni's effort in semis downed Jessica Hardy's meet record of 1:04.22 set in 2008.

Hardy's time also stood as the ratified American record, even though Soni has been much faster with a world-record 1:02.70 at the Duel in the Pool held last December. As explained ad nauseum during this meet, many of USA Swimming's American records in short course meters are slower than the fastest time posted by an American in the event. The federation chose to invalidate techsuit swims domestically after USA Swimming banned techsuits on Oct. 2009, even though techsuits were still legal worldwide until Jan. 1, 2010. Soni improved her already second-ranked season best of 1:04.64, but could not track down Leisel Jones' top-ranked 1:03.63 from July.

Jones earned the second seed with a time of 1:04.75, while China's Ji Liping bettered her Chinese record of 1:05.32 set earlier in the meet with a semifinal swim of 1:04.78. Sun Ye had owned the record heading into the meet with a 1:05.55 from last year. Ji just missed the Asian record of 1:04.65 held by Nanaka Tamura since Nov. 2009.

Russia's Yuliya Efimova (1:05.22), Denmark's Rikke Moeller Pedersen (1:05.33), Australia's Sarah Katsoulis (1:05.60), Sweden's Jennie Johansson (1:05.71) and The Netherlands' Moniek Nijhuis (1:05.92) picked up lanes in the championship heat.

Day Three Finals Results

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