Martina Lowers Her World-Leading Time in the 100 Fly in Canet

CANET, June 18. WHILE many swimmers swam significantly slower in Canet — the final stop on this year's Mare Nostrum tour — Slovakia's Martina Moravcova demonstrated yet again that if you can't find "fast water," you'll just have to make some yourself.

That's just what the 27 year-old SMU grad did, flying through a scorching 58.11 100 meter butterfly — the third time in a row she has lowered her own world-leading time in the event for 2003. She did it without much competition, winning the race by nearly four seconds. Yesterday Martina, who trains in Dallas, won the 100 freestyle in 54.79.

Britain's James Gibson streaked through the 100 meter breaststroke in 1:01.02, once again defeating Ukraine's Oleg Lisogor, who swam a solid 1:01.74, with Brit Chris Cook third in 1:01.87.

Israel's Yoav Gath, who won the 100 back yesterday, clocked a national record 2:00.87 to win the 200 today, just edging France's Simon Dufour by 8-hundredths at the wall.

Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov once again defeated Russian rival Igor Marchenko in the 100 fly, but the margin of victory keeps shrinking. This time it was reduced as low as it can get — one-hundredth of a second. Still, the gold went to Serdinov in 53.01 to Marchenko's 53.02.

In other men's events, Russia's Alex Popov and Algeria's Salim Iles tied for first in the 50 free at 22.82; the Czech Republic's Kvetoslav Svoboda took the 200 free in 1:49.96; and Romania's Cezar Badita swam a solid 2:02.73 to win the 200 IM.

Today was a banner day for Belarus, as Elena Popchenko
won both the 200 free (1:59.31) and 400 free (4:10.89) with impressive swims. Hanna Scherba added another gold for Belarus with her 26.15 for the 50 free. She also placed second in the 200 IM after finishing third yesterday in the 400 IM.

Sixteen year-old Stanislava Komarova posted a solid win in the 200 back. Her 2:12.88 gave her almost a three-second victory over France's Roxana Maracineanu (2:15.46), the 1998 world champion in the event.

Austrian teenager Mirna Jukic completed her Mare Nostrum sweep of the breaststroke events wit a 1:09.08-second effort in the 100 meter event. Russia's Elena Bogomazova was almost a full second behind at 1:09.90.

Finally, Ukraine's Yana Klochkova clinched her sweep of the medley events, clocking 2:15.34 for 200 meters to defeat Scherba (2:16.95) handily.

2003 MARE NOSTRUM
Canet, France
June 17-18, 2003

50 meter pool

RESULTS
Day Two: June 18, 2003

WOMEN

50 METER FREESTYLE
1 26.15 Scherba Hanna,82,BLR
2 26.72 Brett Rosalind,78,GBR
3 26.73 Mongel Aurore,82,FRA

200 METER FREESTYLE
1 1:59.31 Popchenko Elena,79,BLR
2 2:00.26 Marshall Melanie,82,GBR
3 2:03.33 Partyka Elina,83,EST

400 METER FREESTYLE
1 4:10.89 Popchenko Elena,79,BLR
2 4:22.29 Pasini Elisa,81,ITA
3 4:25.51 Blomme Laura,82,FRA

200 METER BACKSTROKE
1 2:12.88 Komarova Stanislava,86,RUS
2 2:15.46 Maracineanu Roxana,75,FRA
3 2:16.01 Barsanti Federica,78,ITA

100 METER BREASTSTROKE
1 1:09.08 Jukic Mirna,86,AUT
2 1:09.90 Bogomazova Elena,82,RUS
3 1:10.55 Le Paranthoen Anne-Sophie,77,FRA

100 METER BUTTERFLY
1 58.11 Moravcova Martina,76,SVK
2 1:01.74 Cavallino Paola,77,ITA
3 1:01.83 Loots Amanda,78,RSA

200 METER INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
1 2:15.34 Klochkova Yana,82,UKR
2 2:16.95 Scherba Hanna,82,BLR
3 2:19.39 Manaudou Laure,86,FRA

MEN

50 METER FREESTYLE
1 22.82 Popov Alexander,71,RUS
1 22.82 Iles Salim,75,ALG
3 23.01 Sicot Julien,78,FRA

200 METER FREESTYLE
1 1:49.96 Svoboda Kvetoslav,82,CZE
2 1:51.44 Fesenko Sergiy,82,UKR
3 1:51.45 Coman Dragos,80,ROM

200 METER BACKSTROKE
1 2:00.87 Gath Yoav,80,ISR
2 2:00.95 Dufour Simon,79,FRA
3 2:01.30 Vyatchanin Arkadi,84,RUS

100 METER BREASTSTROKE
1 1:01.02 Gibson James,79,GBR
2 1:01.74 Lisogor Oleg,79,UKR
3 1:01.87 Cook Chris,79,GBR

100 METER BUTTERFLY
1 53.01 Serdinov Andriy,82,UKR
2 53.02 Marchenko Igor,75,RUS
3 53.24 Korotyshkin Evgeni,83,RUS

200 METER INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
1 2:02.73 Badita Cezar,79,ROM
2 2:04.52 Parkin Terence,79,RSA
3 2:04.65 Febbraro Nicola,81,ITA

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