Megan Jendrick Posts Swift Split in 100 Breast Prelim Swim; Time Will Not Count as American Record UPDATED

FEDERAL WAY, Washington, July 24. ACCORDING to reports, KING's Megan Jendrick swam a time faster than the American record in the women's 50 breast as part of her 100 breast prelim swim at the PNS Long Course Championships held in Federal Way this weekend.

Jendrick raced to a confirmed time of 1:06.22 in the women's 100 breast during prelims. That performance is the fifth-fastest in the world this year behind Rebecca Soni (1:05.34), Annamay Pierse (1:05.74), Yuliya Efimova (1:05.80) and Leisel Jones (1:06.10).

According to meet officials, Jendrick clocked a 30.36 during her initial 50 meters, which is faster than Jessica Hardy's record of 30.53 at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, which she swam on the way to her 1:06.87 in the 100 breast final.

Official results at the PNS meet do not provide splits for prelim races, since prelims are conducted there in a double-ended chase format, a popular meet format for large age group meets conducted in long course meters. This means a heat starts at one end of the pool while a heat that started at the other end of the pool is finishing its race (for all distances 100 meters and above), and so on, allowing a meet to be run in the quickest way possible. This type of format requires two independent timing systems on both ends of the pool, which means the touchpad in Jendrick's lane at the turn would not have been programmed to register her touch, as it is being reset for the heat about to start at that end of the pool.

Because there was no automatic timing to register Jendrick's split, the time cannot count as an American record, according to the USA Swimming rules and regulations Rule 102.16B. This rule states that world, American and U.S. Open records, as well as relay leadoffs and split times, must be registered on automatic timing. Only if the timing system experiences a malfunction will records be accepted from three stopwatches.

If Jendrick swims the 100 breast in the final, only one timing system will be used, allowing both touchpads in her lane to register.

Swimming World will bring you a report of the final when results become available.

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