By Stephen J. Thomas
Brisbane, Australia. LEISEL Jones surprised even herself with a brilliant swim while still in full training to trim just 0.03 of a second off the old world mark jointly held by American Amanda Beard and China's Qi Hui.
The 18-year-old Queenslander clocked 2:22.96 (50: 33.03, 100: 1:09.81, 150: 1:46.27) on the final night of the Grand Prix event at the Chandler poolin her home city of Brisbane where she had set her previous best of time of 2:23.72 in January this year. Jones, the Olympic 100-meter silver medalist from Sydney, now holds the world record in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke just four weeks out from Athens.
A comparison of the splits:
Qi 33.37 1:10.00 1:46.64 2:22.99
Beard 33.31 1:09.99 1:46.80 2:22.99
Jones 33.03 1:09.81 1:46.27 2:22.96