Moses, Tanaka Turn in Blazing Breaststroke Swims at Eastern Sectionals

FAIRFAX, Virginia., July 29. AMERICAN Olympian Ed Moses and Japan's Masami Tanaka stole the show at the Speedo/Eastern Section II Championships this weekend at George Mason University's Aquatic & Fitness Center Pool here.

Curl-Burke's Moses, who tore up the World Cup circuit this past winter while laying waste to world sc meters 50-100 and 200 breast records, went a sizzling unshaved 1:01.91 100 breast Friday evening — his seasonal pr and the top American time of the year.

Tanaka, training with Moses at Curl-Burke since last fall, set a pair of meet records with her seasonal prs of 1:08.90/2:27.06 for the 100-200 breast.

Tanaka holds her country's 100 record with her 1:07.27 from the Japanese Olympic Trials in Tokyo in April of Y2K. That time ranks her 12th on the all-time performances' list, fourth performer. The Asian record
is a 1:06.96 by China's Luo Xuejuan from last fall's 9th National Games in Guangzhou, history's third-best performance (second performer).

Luo also won last summer's World Championship 100 with a meet-record 1:07.18. So although her pr was done at a domestic meet where any sort of drug testing was presumably nominal at best, she is legit as her time from Fukuoka shows.

In the 200, Tanaka's pr is even more impressive, i.e., an NR 2:24.12, also from the Trials. That time ranks her fifth on the all-time global performances' list, fourth performer. She has yet to medal at a major
international competition, however.

Tanana's 100 ranks her sixth gloablly this year (peformer) and is the eighth-fastest performance. In the 200 she's even higher, i.e., fifth-fastest peformer and sixth-performance.

Moses is ninth-quickest globally but his pr (American-record 1:00.29 from last year's World Championship Trials in Austin) ranks him fifth on the all-time performances' list and he's also second-best performer.

However, the No. 1 man — Russia's Roman Sloudnov — has the world's four-fastest performances, including history's only two sub 1:00.0 clockings, and the World Championship title too.

Tanaka's times here make her faster than any other Japanese woman this year by a wide margin, but since she did not swim at her country's Pan-Pac Trials in June she will be kept off the team for Yokohama and the Asian Games.

Moses will have to finish among the Top 2 at the U.S. Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale next month to make the plane to Yokohama but he has told SwimInfo he probably will not make the trip, preferring to return to the University of Virginia for the beginning of the fall semester.

World 400 IM record-holder Tom Dolan made his competitve debut after taking the year off last season and won the 200 free in 1:53+. His pr in this
race is a 1:49.89 from the '97 Pan-Pacs, the last time he's swum it seriously.

— Bill Bell

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