By PHillip Whitten<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE, Australia, October 8. THE USA's Steve Borowski won two events, just missing the world records in each, and Jane Swaggerty-Hill and Don Hill took home his and hers golds to highligh swimming on Day Two of the swimming competition at the World Masters Games in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
200 meter backstroke<\/b>
\nThe men's 200m backstroke was generally slow, as only three Masters Games marks fell, but there were two near world records in the women's races.<\/p>\n
Canada's Bonnie Pronk stroked 3:08.35 to win the 60-64 division, just tweo seconds off the world mark. In the 70-74 age group, Denmark's Grethe Bendsten clocked 3:32.36, four seconds slower than the global standard.<\/p>\n
Two Americans emerged as winners. Sunn Smileyt clocked 2:38.16 to win the 30-34 age group, while Norma Bernardi snatched gold in the 80-84 age group with her 5:17.94.<\/p>\n
In the 35-39 age group, the top six finishers broke the Games mark, with Australia's Helen Whitford the winner in 2:35.95.<\/p>\n
100 meter Freestyle<\/b>
\nHawaii Masters' Steve Borowski had the outstanding time in the men's 100m free, as his 58.99 just missed Rich Abraham's WR of 58.23. Ironically, his time wasn't a Games record.<\/p>\n
Two other American men struck gold: DonnHill, whose 1:08.39 was just two seconds off Arizona Masters teammate Ron Johnson's world mark; and Gilbert Young, who won the 80-84 division in 1:30.46.<\/p>\n
There were several other outstanding winning swims: Jared Clarke (AUS) went 52.53 in the 25-29 age group; Ricardo Santos (BRA) swam 56.17 in the 40-44 division; Tony Strahan (AUS), whose 1:02.45 was just two seconds off the world mark for men 60-64; and John Mills (AUS) whose winning 1:16.97 was about three seconds off the 75-79 record.<\/p>\n
Four Americans took gold in the women's 100m free: Peggy Gross (30-34), who clocked 1:00.70; Kathy Shipman, who won the 40-44 age group in 1:05.01; Jane Hill, whose 1:09.45 was fast enough to win the 50-54 division but was still a second behind her husband, Don's, winning time; and Norma Bernardi, who won the 80-84 age froup in 2:31.44.<\/p>\n
Australia's 1972 Olympic star Shanew Gould took the 45-49 age group in 1:02.74, just missing Laura Val's world mark of 1:02.42.<\/p>\n
Britain's Judy Wilson took the 55-59 division in 1:11.23, two seconds off her own world record.<\/p>\n
50 meter Breaststroke<\/b>
\nBreaststroke seems to be the most universal stroke, with winners coming from the greatest number of countries. In today's 50m breast, seven countries were represented in the #1 spot for the men, and eight for women.<\/p>\n
Plamen Alexandrov was the only American man to earn gold in the sprint breaststroke, capturing the 40-44 race in a swift 31.16. Egon Henninger of Germany, an East German Olympian, clocked 36.30 to take the 60-64 age group.<\/p>\n
There were two very fast swims in the women's 50. Canada's Bonnie Pronk lowered Jayne Bruner's world mark in the 60-64 age group from 41.43 to 40.56. Germany's Dagmar Hilbig swam the second-fastest ever 50 for women 40-44, clocking 34.78. At age 44, she recorded the fastest time in thee entire womedn's event.<\/p>\n
Livia Walker was the only American to win gold, taking the 80-84 division race in 1:39.16 when her two Aussie challengers were both DQ'ed.<\/p>\n
100 meter Butterfly<\/b>
\nUS swimmers won two of the men's races, and they turned in the best performances of the event in doing so.<\/p>\n
Steve Borowski came ever-so-close to breaking Rich Abrahams' 55-59 global standard once again when he touched in 1:04.12 — 22-hundredths behind the record.<\/p>\n
In the 30-34 division, Mike Sorensen recorded a swift 57.87, 1.4 seconds off the world mark.<\/p>\n
Only one American earned gold in the women's races. That was Peggy Gross, who swam an outstanding 1:04,74 to capture first in the 30-34 division.<\/p>\n
Other top swims included Germany's Angela Zigler who touched in 1:12.18 to take the 45-49 age group, and Britain's Judy Wilson who swam 1:15.51 — less than two seconds outside of her own world mark to take the 55-59 race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By PHillip Whitten MELBOURNE, Australia, October 8. THE USA's Steve Borowski won two events, just missing the world records in each, and Jane Swaggerty-Hill and Don Hill took home his<\/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-4206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n