Three short course swimming world records were broken in Berlin. One of them was only four days old. Peter Marshall (not the game show host) set a 50-meter backstroke record of 23.05 in Stockholm, Sweden last week. Randall Bal went 22.87, with Marshall only 3-hundredths behind (22.90) in Berlin. I guess the question is: how low can they go? (Bal shown at right.)
Paul Biedermann (from Germany) broke Ian Thorpe's 200-meter short course record, going 1:40.83. Thorpe's record wasn't four days old, it was eight years old. Despite Phelps' current prominence, Thorpe was still one of the best swimmers of all-time, and we're lucky he forgot his camera on 9/11/01 and wasn't at the World Trade Center as scheduled.
Marieke Guehrer (sounds German, considering this was in Berlin, but she's actually from Australia) broke the record and the 25.00 second border in the women's 50 butterfly with a time of 24.99. I wonder where the Australians keep getting these swimmers with German-sounding last names. Imposing Michael Klim had a Germanic (or at least Scandinavic) sounding name, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment