VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 20. TEAM USA completed a dominant run at the 2006 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships with a sweep of each relay event as the quartet of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Jason Lezak smashed the 400-meter medley relay meet record of 3:33.48 previously set by the United States in Yokohama, Japan on August 29, 2002. The American contingent blew away the field en route to a gold-medal 3:31.79.
Peirsol opened the race with a 53.74 during the backstroke leg, before giving way to the Hansen. Hansen, fresh off lowering his 200-meter breaststroke world record, turned in a 59.18 split during the breaststroke leg to put the team’s time at 1:52.92. Crocker ripped off a 50.92 during the butterfly leg en route to hitting the wall in 2:43.84 for Team USA. Lezak then clinched the meet record with a 47.95 freestyle split for a 3:31.79.
Meanwhile, Japan’s squad of Tomomi Morita, Kosuke Kitajima, Ryo Takayasu and Takamitsu Kojima pocketed silver in 3:35.70, while Australia’s team of Matt Welsh, Brenton Rickard, Andrew Lauterstein and Eamon Sullivan took home bronze in 3:36.15.
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