MELBOURNE, Oct. 7. AUSTRALIA'S Simon Leighfield, 29, set the only world record on Day One of the World Masters Games in Melbourne. Leighfield blitzed the 200m breaststroke in 2:20.25, slicing four seconds off the old men's 25-29 mark held by Ecuador's Abraham Solano.<\/p>\n
Two other swims just missed setting global marks. Steve Borowski, Hawaii Masters, blazed a 27.80 to win the men's 55-59 50 meter butterfly. The time was just 4-hundredths slower than Rich Abrahams' record of 27.76.<\/p>\n
Canada's Bonnie Pronk won the women's 60-64 200m breaststroke in 3:16.43. Only she has swum faster — she went 3:14.49 earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Pronk also swam the second-fastest 200 IM ever swum in her age group, but her 3:05.28 here did not challenge the 3:00.52 she swam in Canada in March.<\/p>\n
Aside from Pronk's swim, both the women's and men's 200 IM was relatively slow, with no American winners. The 50m butterfly, however, was another story.<\/p>\n
Three American women and three American men won gold in the one-lap sprint. In the 30-34 age group, the USA went 1-2 as Peggy Gross out-touched Sunny Smiley by 5-hundredths in 29.69. Kathy Shipman won the 40-44 age group in a strong 30.46, while Jane Swaggerty-Hill took the 50-54 division in 33.13.<\/p>\n
Aside from Borowski's win, the US boasted winners in Mike Sorensen, who took the 30-34 age group in 26.28, the event's fastest time, and Jeno Arts, who aced the 65-69 age group in 35.63.<\/p>\n
In the women's 45-49 division, Aussie Olympic star Shane Gould out-touched Germany's Angela Zingler, 30.88 – 30.89. Zingler own the WR at 30.30. Judy Wilson of Britain won the 55-59 division in 33.14; only she has gone faster (WR 32.34). In the 65-69 age group, Hisoko Sato of Japan clocked 40.30, about a second slower than Gail Roper's global standard of 39.18.<\/p>\n
Brazilians Helio Celidonio and Ricardo Santos clocked 26.68 and 26.94, respectively, to take the men's 35-39 and 40-44 races.<\/p>\n
Livia Walker was the only American woman to take gold in the 200m breaststroke, clocking 7:40.78 to win the women's 80-84 race. <\/p>\n
Australia's Jan Fowler posted a strong 2:54.47, which aws still 12 seconds off the USA's Caroline Krattli's world markin the women's 40-44 age group.<\/p>\n
Bulgarian Olympian Plamen Alexandrov was the only American man to strike gold in the 200 breast, posting a 2:33.80 to take the 40-44 division.<\/p>\n
Australia's Mike Moloney just missed breaking the 60-64 WR with his 2:58.92. The record is held by Britain's Tom Walker at 2:58.37.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MELBOURNE, Oct. 7. AUSTRALIA'S Simon Leighfield, 29, set the only world record on Day One of the World Masters Games in Melbourne. Leighfield blitzed the 200m breaststroke in 2:20.25, slicing<\/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-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n