15 Masters World Marks Set at Pacific Masters Short Course Meters Champs

OCT. 26. WALNUT CREEK, Calif. FOUR swimmers accounted for 15 world records at the Pacific Masters Short Course Meters Championships, held Oct. 20-21, in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Val Sets Seven
The amazing Laura Val accounted for seven of those records. The 50 year-old Tamalpais Masters phenom destroyed the global Masters standards in three different strokes: freestyle, backstroke and fly.

Val clocked 28.56 in the 50m free, slashing almost a full second off the 29.54 record set last year by Holland's Conny Boer-Buijs.

In the 100 free, Val's 1:01.49 not only destroyed the Dutchwoman's 1:05.95 mark, it also bettered her own 1:01.76 mark in the 45-49 age group set five years ago. Val's 2:15.84 for the 200 free was almost nine seconds faster than the former mark, 2:24.43, by Canada's Dianne Foster in 1999.

In the backstrokes, Val eased by the newly-minted marks set by Jane Swaggerty Hill two weeks earlier at the Arizona SCM Champs. Val's 33.51 and 1:12.95 bettered Hill's 33.61 and 1:14.62.

Val punctuated her weekend with 31.16 and 1:09.05 swims in the 50 and 100m fly. The old records were 32.51 by Holland's Boer-Buijs and 1:12.66 by the USA's Ardeth Mueller.

Strand Nets Four
Bob Strand continued his march through the age ranks like Sherman marching through Georgia. At Walnut Creek, The Olympic Club ace notched four world marks, taking all three breaststroke records, including two golden oldies.

In the 50m breast, Strand's 32.69 bettered Japan's Hiroshi Kotegawa's 33.17 set in 1993. His 100 meter time of 1:13.35 erased one of the oldest marks on the books, Mani Sanguily's 1:16.32 from 1988. In the 200, Strand glided home in 2;41.47, almost eight seconds better than Tegze Haraszti's 2:49.21 set three years ago.

Strand also took the 100 IM mark down to 1:07.91, carving 9-hundredths off the record set last December by Mike Ahern.

Strand has set goals of 1:10 and 2:36 in the breaststrokes by the end of the year, and also hopes to lower the 100 and 200 IM standards.

Rider and Jones-Roy Get Two Apiece
Strand also saw one of his old records fall. Swimming in the 45-49 age group, Lee Rider, RHMS, clocked 1:08.09 in the 100m breast. Strand had held the record at 1:09.44 for six years.

Rider also bettered the 50m world mark, clocking 31.24, almost half a second better than Germany's Thomas Paehr's 31.71 set last December.

Susan Jones-Roy, a 1968 Olympian, added to the damage in the women's 50-54 age group, setting world marks in the 100 breast and 100 IM.

In the 100 breast, Jones-Roy's 1:23.93 bettered the record of 1:24.46 by Germany's Christiane Heeren from 1999. Her 100 IM swim of 1:17.77 lowered the global standard of 1:17.98 by Britain's Carol Fellows, set back in 1996.

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