By Michael Collins<\/p>\n
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 24. DAY ONE of the IX FINA World Masters Championships in now complete. Only the 800 Free was contested on the first day, but that took 8 hours to complete. <\/p>\n
800 Free Highlights<\/p>\n
WOMEN<\/b><\/p>\n
Penny Palfrey, 40 of LTL had the fastest female time of 9:25.97 but came up a mere 2-hundredths short of Susan Heim-Bowen's world record in that age group. Heim-Bowen, 44, finished with the second fastest time of 9:33.07, but is scheduled for surgery in the near future for a shoulder injury. <\/p>\n
The third fastest time went to Sue Perkins,31, of the Sea Pirates in Australia with a 9:40.59.<\/p>\n
Jane Asher, 71, of Great Britain broke her own 70-74 WR of 12:48.74 by an incredible 16 seconds with a 12:32.21<\/p>\n
In the 75-59 age group Liz Wallis of Manly AUS was fast enough to beat the Age Group world record holder June Krauser 14:17.45 – 14:56.83 but she wasn't quite fast enough to take her record time of 14:10.50.<\/p>\n
The only American woman to win her age group was Danielle Ogier who took the 50-54 in 10:39.61.<\/p>\n
MEN<\/b><\/p>\n
The three fastest men in the 800 free were John Hamilton, 26 of BAF (8:53.15); Alejandro Moreno, 34 of ANV (8:57.13); and Uwe Steinkoetter, 27 of SCHSC (9:02.06).<\/p>\n
Graham Johnston, 71 was the only swimmer to set a world record in the event with a 10:45.92, which knocked over 5 seconds of the old record of 10:51.33 for men 70-74, which he set last year.<\/p>\n
American age group men dominated the older age groups by winning the 50-54, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-59, 80-84, & 85-89 age groups. <\/p>\n
Tod Spieker, 54 of the Olympic Club, won with a 9:38.46. Tom Landis, 60 of OREG Masters swam a 10:29.35 and was just under 3 seconds short of the 60-64 world record. <\/p>\n
Jerry Clark, 65, competing for Walnut Creek took the 65-69 in 11:27.41. Graham Johnston is already mentioned above. Win Wilson of NEM took the 75-59 in 13:17.74. James Edwards, also of NEM, swam a 15:35.58 to take the 80-84, and finally James Eubank, 87 of San Diego swam a 16:29.38.\t<\/p>\n
Full results for the 800 can now be found in our Results Section under Masters International .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Michael Collins CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 24. DAY ONE of the IX FINA World Masters Championships in now complete. Only the 800 Free was contested on the first day,<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n