Joyce O’Farrell, 90, Downs Australian Masters Records

By Graham Senders, Swimming World Australian Masters correspondent

PERTH, Australia, August 11. ANOTHER of Perth's quality nonagenarians made her mark in the pool on Sunday. At the 1500m LC State Meet hosted by Somerset Masters at their home pool in eastern Perth, 90-year-old home club member Joyce O'Farrell set an inaugural national 1500m Freestyle record in the 90-94 years age group in a time of 43:09.97. On her way through she took over 1:50 off the national 400m Freestyle record and almost 7 minutes off the national 800m mark.

O'Farrell clocked 11:26.04 at the 400m turn, breaking the record of 13:16.55 that Queenslander Joan Godsall set at the 2008 FINA World Masters held in Perth. She went through the 800m point in 22:59.63, taking down the previous record of 29:48.74 set by Victorian Claris Artis in 2006.

Victor Paul of Bold Park club had a rare meet where he left with fewer national records than he came with. Somerset's Jeremy Allen took down Paul's Australian 60-64 years 1500m Backstroke record by just over 16 seconds. Allen swam 26:04.72 against Paul's mark of 26:20.98.

Paul was coming off a meet two weeks ago, a State SC meet at the Balga Leisure Centre, where he broke two 65-69 years Australian records, in the 400m Butterfly and the 800m Individual Medley. Paul swam the 400m Butterfly in 6:34.71 breaking the mark set by Brian Walsh of 7:29.00 in April this year. Paul took more than 44 seconds off John Crisp's 2002 800m IM time of 13:45.69. Paul swam 13:09.50. At the same meet, Maida Vale's Glad McGough set an inaugural national 800m SC IM record in the 80-84 years age group in a time of 28:52.28.

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