Meet Records Keep on Falling as United States Women Thrash 800 Free Relay Field

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 18. THE United States quartet of Natalie Coughlin, Lacey Nymeyer, Dana Vollmer and Katie Hoff surpassed the meet standard of 7:56.96 previously set by the Americans in 2002 with a 7:54.62 clocking in the 800-meter freestyle relay at the 2006 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships on Friday.

“Obviously, it’s a goal of ours to break that world record at some point," Coughlin said, "But tonight we just wanted to do our best, and it's great to get a (Pan Pacific) Championship record."

Coughlin pushed the American relay out to a heavy advantage at the first relay exchange with a 1:58.37 split at the 200-meter mark. Nymeyer lost a bit of that lead over the Australians with a 2:00.06 split at the halfway mark, before Vollmer countered with a 1:58.87 to gain the lead back and more as the United States relay nearly held a two-second advantage heading into the anchor leg.

Hoff, coming off a win in the 400-meter IM just two events before, helped herself to her third gold of the meet, dropped the hammer in the final leg with a 1:57.32 – the fastest split of the race.

Meanwhile, Australia’s contingent of Bronte Barratt, Shayne Reese, Kelly Stubbins and Linda MacKenzie corralled a silver medal in 7:58.00, while the Japanese team of Maki Mita, Norie Urabe, Ai Shibata and Haruka Ueda garnered bronze in 8:00.65.

Click Here to view event results PDF file

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