SYDNEY, December 5. JIM Ballard of the West Hollywood Aquatics Masters set a world record to highlight the swimming competition at the Gay Games, held at the Olympic Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia, November 3-8. <\/p>\n
Ballard's time of 1:03.56 for the 100 meter (long course) backstroke eclipsed Tom Wolf's world and US standard of 1:03.68 set two years ago.<\/p>\n
The meet attracted more than 1,300 swimmers from 24 countries, with men making up about three-quarters of the swimming participants. The U.S. was heavily represented and dominated the victory stand. The 30-34 through 45-49 men's age groups were very deep, while the older age groups had very few participants.<\/p>\n
The meet was notable for having every event, including the 400 free and medley relays and the 800 free relay for men, women and mixed.<\/p>\n
In addition to Ballard's mark, three American relay records were set — all by the san Francisco Tsunami club. The Tsunami 120-159 team of Dan Veatch, Corey carlisle, Geoff Glaser and Scott Robinson clocked 3:46.03 for the 400m free relay and 8:13.69 for the 800. The 160-199 squad consisting of Stephen Martel, Brian Fitzgibbons, Bart McDermott and Todd Oakes swam a US record 3:52.36 for the 400 free relay.<\/p>\n
Three European marks were also established, all by Holland's Rob Weyhencke in the 50-54 age group. The dutchman recorded continental standards of 1:08.79 for the 100m back, 2:32.65 for the 200 back and 2:27.73 for the 200 IM.<\/p>\n
Veatch, 37, a member of the 1988 US Olympic team was outstanding, setting Games records in the men's 35-39 age group in the 200 free (2:01.08), 800 free (8:56.10), 200 back (2:14.16) and 200 IM (2:26.49).<\/p>\n
Jeff commings, a member of the 1991 US Pan Am team, set four Games marks in the 25-29 age group, including a swift 1:05.80 in the 100m breaststroke.<\/p>\n
William Grant of St. Louis, at 89 the oldest competitor at the meet, set twwo Games records in the 85-89 division.<\/p>\n
–Phil Whitten<\/p>\n
Link to complete results below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY, December 5. JIM Ballard of the West Hollywood Aquatics Masters set a world record to highlight the swimming competition at the Gay Games, held at the Olympic Aquatic Centre<\/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-4550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n