Richard Burns, Rita Simonton Each Break Two World Records At Masters Nationals

MISSION VIEJO, California, August 11. THE U.S. Masters Swimming long course nationals concluded today with just five world records broken, but two swimmers each wrapped up their competition with two more records.

With no world marks set in the 200 butterfly events, the first world record of the day came in the men’s 100 freestyle, when Richard Burns swam a 1:04.85 in the 70-74 age group. His time broke Cav Cavanaugh’s 1:05.40 from 2005. But Burns wasn’t done there. He broke Bernd Horstmann’s world record of 34.90 in the 50 backstroke with a 33.59, taking more than a second off the world record. Yoshi Oyakawa’s national mark of 35.31 from 2003 also fell to Burns.

Rita Simonton capped off her record-breaking weekend with two more world records in the 95-99 age group. She kicked off the day with a 2:25.20 in the women’s 100 freestyle, breaking another Mieko Nagaoka world record of 2:56.83. Julia Dolce’s national mark of 3:08.43 also fell by the wayside. Simonton concluded her meet with a 1:15.69 in the 50 backstroke, breaking Nagaoka’s mark of 1:19.05 and Edith Hendry’s national record of 1:39.68.

Jill Hernandez was the final record breaker of the meet, putting together a 4:40.66 in the women’s 400 freestyle to take down Lynn Marshall’s world record of 4:41.19 from 2011 and Suzanne Heim-Bowen’s national mark of 4:42.37 from 2008.

A total of 31 Masters world records were broken at the Marguerite Aquatic Center over the five-day meet. Thursday saw the most records broken, with 12, and world marks were broken in the youngest age group recognized by FINA (25-29) and the oldest age group at the meet (95-99).

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