LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 16. LYNDON Ferns and Natalie Coughlin each posted meet records on Sunday during the final day of competition at the Janet Evans Invitational in Los Angeles, Calif., at the McDonald\u2019s Swim Stadium. Additionally, Ferns clocked an African record in the 100 fly during the meet.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Larsen Jensen and Tamas Kerekjarto also won their third races of the meet to highlight the final day of competition.<\/p>\n
Ferns, a gold medalist for South Africa at the 2004 Olympics, won the men\u2019s 100-meter butterfly, an event he only started training for this year, in 52.59, eclipsing Michael Phelps\u2019 53.44 set in 2002. Ferns also broke the African record and now is the third-fastest swimmer in the event in the world this year. Roland Schoeman, who finished fourth, held the previous African record of 52.73 set in April 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s awesome,\u201d Ferns said. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t have turned out better. That was the plan for the end of the season, and it happened today. I\u2019ve only really started to train fly this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coughlin won the 100-meter backstroke, her third victory of the meet, in 1:00.19 to beat her own mark of 1:00.52 set in 2002. She swam the second-fastest time in the world this year, .01 seconds off what she swam last month in Santa Clara. Jo Fargus, who won the 200-meter backstroke on Friday, came in second in 1:02.34.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with that time,\u201d Coughlin said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have a time goal. I just wanted to go out controlled and strong and have a good second 50 [meters], and that\u2019s exactly what I did. I love the 100 back. It\u2019s my head event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerekjarto captured the 200-meter individual medley in 2:03.61 after winning the 200-meter butterfly on Friday and the 400-meter individual medley on Saturday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI qualified mainly for the 200 IM [at European Championships] \u2013 so it\u2019s going to be my main focus,\u201d Kerekjarto said. \u201cThat\u2019s my strongest event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen followed up his victories in Thursday\u2019s 800-meter freestyle and Friday\u2019s 400-meter freestyle with a win in the 1500-meter freestyle on Sunday. Jensen, who holds the American record in the race, clocked 15:17.75 to beat Guillaume Strohmeyer of the French national team and Cho Sung Mo.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one in the country has been very much faster \u2013 that\u2019s encouraging,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cI could have probably gone a little faster, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Sunday\u2019s other events, Kalyn Keller finished second in the women\u2019s 1500-meter freestyle after winning a 10k Open Water race in Santa Barbara earlier in the day.
\nKeller, a 2004 U.S. Olympian named to the U.S. Open Water national team last month, took the lead right away and had a two-length advantage at the 500-meter mark. Yet Samantha Vanden Berge made her move at the halfway stage and reached the lead at the 800. Keller hung with Vanden Berge for the next 300 meters before Vanden Berge pulled away for the win in 16:44.54. Keller held on for second in 16:47.58,and Alexandra Clarke was third in 16:54.77.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up at 5:30, and we drove to Santa Barbara,\u201d Keller said. \u201cI needed to do it to get more experience. I\u2019m swimming at [Pan Pacific Championships]. I\u2019ve been trying to balance pool and ocean. I looked at it as a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s 100-meter breaststroke, Jessica Hardy, the American record holder and a silver medalist in the event at the 2005 World Championships, won in 1:07.32. Tara Kirk, the winner of Saturday\u2019s 200-meter breaststroke, finished a close second in 1:07.65. Qun Wang, a 15-year-old member of the Chinese national team, took third. Hardy avenged a loss to Kirk at the Speedo Grand Challenge in Irvine in May.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s 100-meter butterfly, Erin Reilly, second to Coughlin in Saturday\u2019s 200-meter freestyle passed Yanwei Xu in the last 50 meters to win in a time of 1:00.10. Xu, who won a silver medal for China in the 800-meter freestyle relay at the 2004 Olympics, held on for second in 1:00.92 with Amanda Sims in third.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s 100-meter breaststroke went to Chris Ash in 1:03.58. Ash, who had tied for second in Saturday\u2019s 200-meter breaststroke with Barnes, beat Barnes by .03 seconds. Haibo Wang of the Chinese national team finished third. John Criste, the winner of the 200-meter breaststroke, came in eighth in the 100.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s 100-meter backstroke, Peter Marshall led wire-to-wire to win in 55.35 seconds. Adam Mania was second, and Matt Grevers took third.<\/p>\n
Yi Ting Siow, a 2000 and 2004 Olympian and the top swimmer in her native Malaysia, won the women\u2019s 200-meter individual medley with a strong move to grab the lead during the breaststroke leg. Her final time of 2:17.29 was 1.20 seconds ahead of Whitney Myers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they pick swimmers on the national team and when they see them improving and getting better, usually they will send them to the United States,\u201d Siow said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t have that many great swimmers like a China, United States or Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 16. LYNDON Ferns and Natalie Coughlin each posted meet records on Sunday during the final day of competition at the Janet Evans Invitational in Los Angeles,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76470,"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":[7,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n