PITESTI, ROMANIA, June 16. EUROPEAN champ and Olympic silver medalist Beatrice Coada-Caslaru lowered her pr and national record in the 100 breast during the World Championship Trials here late last week.<\/p>\n
The Romanian star, who won a silver at Sydney in the 200 IM and a bronze in the 400, went 1:10.14 in the breaststroke to lower her mark of 1:10.54, done in early May at the French Championships in Chamalieres.<\/p>\n
Coada-Caslaru also went a fast 2:26.84 to win the 200 breast, just off her seasonal-best 2:26.34, also done in France, that ranks her fouurth globally. That 2:26.34 is also her pr-NR and places her among the medal contention for next month's World Championships in Fukuoka. <\/p>\n
She also won the 200 IM in 2:13.62, second globally to China's Hui Qi's 2:13.08. Coada-Caslaru's pr-NR is 2:12.57 that won her the Sydney runner-up spot and was the identical time that won her last summer's European Championships gold in Helsinki.<\/p>\n
The meet was swum June 6-10.<\/p>\n
Teammate Diana Mocanu, dual Olympic medalist in both backstrokes, showed she's rounding into shape via wins in the 50 (28.97, fourth globally); 100 (1:01.70) and 200 2:11.62 (third-fastest for 2001). Mocanu's 100 was just off her seasonal-best of 1:01.57 from last April's Turnier des Nations meet in Vienna that ranks her sixth.<\/p>\n
Mocanu won the Sydney 200 back in 2:08.16, ranking her third on the all-time performers' list and sixth-fastest performance. However, the two women ahead of her — Hungary's now-retired Kirstina Egerszegi and China's He — have both hung up their skinsuits. Thus Mocanu would appear to be in position to take a crack at Egerszegi's world record of 2:06.62, set at the
\n1991 European Championships in Vienna.<\/p>\n
The brilliant Hungarian dorsal specialist was double Olympic champ at both Barcelona and Atlanta and Mocanu appears to be on track to perhaps emulate her feats.<\/p>\n
Mocanu could perhaps even give Volker and Zhivanevskaya a run in the 50 back too, although her pr(28.85) is a bit far off Volker's wr (28.25) and
\nZhivanevskaya's pr-NR of 28.67.<\/p>\n
Mocanu, Spain's Nina Zhivanevskaya, the United States' Natalie Coughlin and Volker will also be among the favorites for the 100 title in Japan. Coughlin, with her pr 1:01.32 from the Trials in Austin last March, ranks No. 2 globally. In addition to a medal in Japan — preferably of the golden variety — she'll be after former Stanford star Lee Loveless-Maurer's
\nAmerican record 1:00.77 from the 1998 World Championships in Perth. Loveless' time was done in the prelims and she came back to win at night in 1:01.16.<\/p>\n
Mocanu's winning 100 back at Sydney was 1:00.21, a mere .05 off China's He Cihong's world-record 1:00.16 she swam leading off the medley relay at the 1994 World Championships in Rome – a time most experts believe to have been chemically-enhanced. Mocanu ranks No. 2 on the all-time performers-performances list and has said her goal is to become the first
\nwoman under a minute.<\/p>\n
On the men's side, backstroker Razvan Florea just missed his pr-NR in the 100 (56.35) with a 56.38 and won the 200 in 2:01.42. His pr-NR here is 1:59.05 from the finals at Sydney.<\/p>\n
— Bill Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PITESTI, ROMANIA, June 16. EUROPEAN champ and Olympic silver medalist Beatrice Coada-Caslaru lowered her pr and national record in the 100 breast during the World Championship Trials here late last<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[4],"tags":[44,452,51,4615,4936,38,6596,6156,524,123,923,6600,14544,141,696,15617,1776,4541,468,15614,3554,516,531,327,45,15615,15616,956,62,7906,15618],"class_list":["post-2607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-atlanta","tag-austin","tag-barcelona","tag-beatrice-coada-caslaru","tag-bill-bell","tag-china","tag-diana-mocanu","tag-dorsal-specialist","tag-european-championships","tag-france","tag-fukuoka","tag-helsinki","tag-hui-qi","tag-hungary","tag-japan","tag-lee-loveless-maurer","tag-natalie-coughlin","tag-nina-zhivanevskaya","tag-perth","tag-pitesti","tag-romania","tag-rome","tag-spain","tag-stanford","tag-sydney","tag-the-1991-european-championships","tag-the-french-championships","tag-the-world-championship","tag-united-states","tag-vienna","tag-volker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n