Five Short Course Masters World Records Fall at California Meet

BY Michael W. Moore

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., September 8. FIVE Masters world records were set at the Mountain View Masters Short Course Meters meet, held September 7th at the Eagle Pool. It was a great day for swimming: The weather was warm and the pool was fast.

Suzanne Heim-Bowen (Walnut Creek Masters) set new world records in the 400 and 800 meter freestyle for women 45-49. Suzanne broke Laura Val's five year-old 400 meter standard on the way to breaking Danielle Ogier's six yea-old mark in the 800. Swimming a 9:35.19, she broke the old mark by 21 seconds.

In the past month, Suzanne has destroyed seven world
records in her freshman year in the 45-49 age group.

After warming down, Suzanne quickly dressed to go back home to tend to her husband who recently had both hips replaced.

Laura Val (Tamalpias Aquatic Masters) broke her own 800 meter freestyle standard for women 50-54 by swimming a 9:50.53 in the morning. She then came back to swim a 1:12.50 in the 100 meter individual medley, breaking Danielle Ogier's standard set last year.

In the last race of the meet, Tod Spieker smashed the 400 meter individual medley record in his new age group. Swimming a 5:13.29, Tod took 15 seconds
off the old 55-59 world record of 5:28.51.

In that heat, Tod and Jim Clemmons (50-54) were seeded
in ajoining lanes. In the fly leg, Jim was ahead by two body lengths. Tod, a world record holder in the backstroke, swam faster in that leg to surge ahead of Jim by a body length. Jim, the better breaststroker,
was able to outpace Tod in the third leg so that by the end of the breaststroke the two men turned in a dead head.

Both Tod and Jim are distance freestylers so the race depended on who had more left for the freestyle leg. Both took off quickly, but Sunday was Tod's day as he surged ahead to win by two body lengths.

The Mountain View meet is the second of four Short Course Meters meets that are part of Pacific Masters' 2003 SCM season. Pacific Masters Short Course Championships will be held September 27th (the 1500
free) and October 4th and 5th at the new Menlo-Atherton High School swimming pool.

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