HAMBURG, Germany, August 12. PREPARING for the upcoming Pan Pacific Championships, Roland Schoeman unleashed a spectacular show Saturday at the Deutscher Ring Aquatics meet, a short-course competition in Hamburg, Germany. Schoeman established a world record in the 50 freestyle during the morning preliminaries and also won the 100 freestyle.
Clocking 20.98 during the 50 free prelims, Schoeman broke the world record of Fred Bousquet, who was timed in 21.10 during the 2004 NCAA Championships while racing for Auburn University. Schoeman came back and won the final in 21.28, well ahead of the 21.80 by British veteran Mark Foster. For good measure, Schoeman won the 100 free in 46.70.
Fresh off a spectacular showing at the European Championships, Germany’s Britta Steffen continued to perform splendidly as she won the 100 free in 52.82. She was followed by the Netherlands’ Marleen Veldhuis (53.51). In the 50 breaststroke races, top honors went to South Africa’s Suzaan van Biljon (31.17) and the Ukraine’s Oleg Lisogor (26.93).
Germany’s Thomas Rupprath prevailed in the 100 butterfly (51.00) and Janine Pietsch took first in the 100 back in 59.20. Other German triumphs came from Nicole Hetzer in the 200 I.M. (2:11.02) and Helge Meeuw won the men’s 100 back in 51.55. Antje Buschschulte set a German record in the 50 fly with a mark of 25.73.