By Phillip Whitten<\/p>\n
INNSBRUCK, Austria, November 8. INNSBRUCK, a picturesque Alpine town far more famous for skiing than swimming, served as the setting for
\n"SprintChamps 2003" — heralded as "for sharks only." The meet, held yesterday, also served as the international debut for three members of the newly-formed "Race Club" of Islamorada, Florida.<\/p>\n
German swimmers dominated the meet, with Janine Pietsch turning in the best women's times and Sebastian Halgasch the best men's.<\/p>\n
Pietsch, 21, won the women's 50 and 100 meter (sc) backstrokes in 28.51 and 1:00.19, respectively. Halgasch won the same two events for men in 25.72 and 54.92.<\/p>\n
Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov was also an impressive double winner, taking the 50 (24.46) and 100m fly (52.28).<\/p>\n
Race club member Mark Foster, 33, of Britain's City of Bath, won the 50m free, in which he holds the world record, in 22.14. Race Club teammate Gary Hall, Jr. was fifth in 22.88.<\/p>\n
Another 33 year-old, Germany's Mark Warnecke, won the 50m breast in 27.95 as Race Club's Jeremy Linn, a 1996 Olympic gold and silver medalist, placed seventh in 29.40. The 100 breast went to Italy's Davide Cassol in 1;01.42, with Linn sixth in 1:04.53.<\/p>\n
Sweden's Therese Alshammar took the women's 50m free in 25.52, with Germany's Franzi van Almsick third in 25.80. Two thirtysomethings followed closely behind: Austria's Judith Draxler, 33, was fourth in 25.82 while former GDR stalwart, Kathrin Meissner, 30, was fifth in 25.95.<\/p>\n
Van Almsick later won the 100 in 55.26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phillip Whitten INNSBRUCK, Austria, November 8. INNSBRUCK, a picturesque Alpine town far more famous for skiing than swimming, served as the setting for "SprintChamps 2003" — heralded as "for<\/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-6144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n