BARCELONA, Spain, June 10. IF you\u2019re tired of reading about Australia\u2019s Leisel Jones, you might want to skip down a few paragraphs. But, if you\u2019re all about lightning-quick swimming and mind-boggling performances, you\u2019ve found the right place. While the Mare Nostrum Series shifted cities, moving to Barcelona for its third stop, the highlight-reel swims continued to flow.<\/p>\n
Having swept the breaststroke events in Monaco and France, Jones took two steps toward accomplishing the feat in Spain when she won the 50 and 200 distances in spectacular fashion on Saturday. Racing in another stratosphere, Jones popped a 30.77 clocking in the 50 breast and added a 2:23.38 performance in the 200 breast despite being in the middle of training. She won the shorter race by nearly a second over New Zealand\u2019s Zie Baker (31.75) and claimed top honors in the 200 breast by three-plus seconds over Great Britain\u2019s Kirsty Balfour (2:26.86).<\/p>\n
Although her countrywoman, Jade Edmistone, holds the world record in the 50 breast, there\u2019s a chance Jones could pull off a breaststroke trifecta at next year\u2019s World Championships in Melbourne. The world-record holder in the 100 and 200 breast events, Jones has shown a marked improvement over the one-lap sprint. Whether those strides are enough to win the world crown will be determined next March.<\/p>\n
Aussie Libby Lenton, who has also enjoyed a solid showing during Mare Nostrum action, collected titles in the 50 butterfly (26.52) and 50 freestyle (25.11). Meanwhile, Tayliah Zimmer paced the Australian contingent in the 50 backstroke by winning the event in 28.82. <\/p>\n
The Ukraine\u2019s Yana Klochkova won her second consecutive Mare Nostrum foray in the 200 individual medley when she negotiated the distance in 2:15.43, just ahead of the 2:15.90 clocking turned in by Denmark\u2019s Julie Hjorth. Other gold-medal efforts among the women were corralled by the United States\u2019 Margaret Hoelzer in the 200 backstroke (2:12.35), Canada\u2019s Audrey Lacroix in the 200 fly (2:10.87) and Britain\u2019s Rebecca Adlington in the 800 free (8:34.76) and Melanie Marshall in the 200 free (1:59.10).<\/p>\n
A veteran of the international ranks, Sweden\u2019s Lars Frolander bested the field in the 50 butterfly to highlight men\u2019s action. Frolander touched the wall in 24.22 to finish just ahead of the Ukraine\u2019s Andriy Serdinov (24.38). Meanwhile, the Japanese squad registered a pair of triumphs as Junya Koga won the 50 backstroke (25.39) and Yuki Sato prevailed in the 200 breast (2:13.72).<\/p>\n
Great Britain also had two wins on the male side, thanks to the presence of Ross Davenport and David Carry. In the 200 free, Davenport recorded a mark of 1:49.79 to defeat Carry, who went 1:50.03. Carry, however, won the 400 free in 3:49.18, ahead of the 3:49.95 of Aussie Craig Stevens. Leith Brodie won the 200 I.M. for Australia in 2:02.12 and teammate Nick D\u2019Arcy won the 200 fly in 1:58.66.<\/p>\n
Other victories among the men were claimed by the Ukraine\u2019s Oleg Lisogor in the 50 breast (27.75), Romania\u2019s Razvan Florea in the 200 backstroke (1:58.71) and David Maitre in the 50 free (22.61).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BARCELONA, Spain, June 10. IF you\u2019re tired of reading about Australia\u2019s Leisel Jones, you might want to skip down a few paragraphs. But, if you\u2019re all about lightning-quick swimming and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n