Dunbar, San Diego Relays Set World Marks -- August 5, 1999

At a Masters meet at the University of California, San Diego, July 24-25, Barbara Dunbar chopped 40 seconds off the world record for the women's 50-54 1500m freestyle, clocking 20:22.69. She picked up a two-fer when she split 10:48.12 for the 800, good for a national record.

In the 80-84 division, Rita Simonton matched Dunbar's tally. Simonton stroked the 400m free in 7:55.35, to shave a second off Marjorie Sharpe's old world mark. Simonton's 200m free time, 3:44.19, lowered her own U.S. standard by 5-hundredths, but fell just short of the world mark of 3:44.00, held by Ume Wada of Japan.

The San Diego Masters 160+ women's relay team chipped in with two awesome world relay marks. The team of Beth Knight, Barbara Dunbar, Carolyn Krattli and Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen swam 1:57.34 in the 200m freestyle relay and 2:12.15 for the 200m medley relay.