Masters World Records Continue to Fall

By Phillip Whitten

November 9. MASTERS world records continued to fall in East Coast meets both south and north last month.

At the Dixie Zone Championships in Orlando, Florida, October 5-7, no fewer than eight short course meters world marks were swept away, with Olympians Martin Zubero and June Krauser doing most of the sweeping.

Zubero, 32, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 200m backstroke and the world record-holder until Lenny Krayzelburg lowered his mark in 1999, destroyed a superb men's 30-34 global standard in that same event, clocking 2:00.43. John Keppeler, USA, set the old mark of 2:02.91 two years ago.

Zubero split: 28.84, 59.26, 1:30.24, 2:00.43.

Zubero, representing Orlando Masters, also took the 50m backstroke mark of 25.95 held by the USA's Derek Robinson down to 25.54. He finished off by swimming the 100m IM in 56.98, taking away the record of 57.84 set five years ago by Japan's Hiroshi Miura.

Krauser, 75, swimming for Florida Gold Coast Masters, accounted for three records in the women's 75-79 age group. The "mother of Masters swimming" clocked 3:43.58 for the 200 IM, chopping 20 seconds off the mark of 4:03.47 set less than a year earlier by Australia's Mary Cunningham. She followed with a 7:52.71 effort in the 400 IM, knocking 38 seconds off the record of 8:30.82 held by the USA's Lois Kivi Nochman for the past two years.

Krauser finished her weekend by clocking 7:00.56 for the 400 free, a tad better than the USA's Margery Meyer's 7:01.36 from 1998. Krauser, no doubt, has her sights set on going under 7 minutes.

Orlando Masters' John McCall broke Boo Graner Gallas' record of 1:02.54 for the 100m fly for men 50-54 set four years ago. McCall clocked a swift 1:01.95.

In the men's 55-59 division, Joel Burns flew through 50 meters butterfly in 28.37 seconds, two-tenths of a second under Jim Dragon's mark from 1999.

Three weeks later, up north at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Greg Shaw also lowered Boo Gallas' 100 fly mark. Shaw, 50, clocked 1:01.98, just three-hundredths slower than McCall's swim in Orlando.

Shaw has been swimming for New England Masters for a little more than a year after a swimming "layoff" of 30 years. Greg swam one year at ASU before
"temporarily" retiring from competitive swimming. The guy's got potential.

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