National Long Course Swim Championships : Nadadores’ Wojdat Wins 200 Freestyle

Artur Wojdat of Poland surprisingly won the 200-meter freestyle Wednesday night at the National Long Course Championships at Santa Clara in a race in which less than a second separated the eight finalists.

Wojdat, 18, who came to the United States 10 months ago to swim for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, is using this meet as a tuneup for next week’s World Championships in Spain. He was timed in 1:51.05.

“This was just the kind of competition I needed before I go to the World Championships,” Wojdat said. “Poland will have only a three-man team and I will have to swim all the freestyles.”

Wojdat failed to place in the 100-meter and 800-meter freestyles. He will compete in the 400 freestyle Thursday and the 400 medley relay Friday. He leaves for Madrid on Sunday.

“Today, I felt pretty good for the first time,” he said. “What a good experience this has been for me. At home, there is no competition and you need competition to improve.”

Paul Robinson of Richardson, Tex., finished second at 1:51.11, and David Kerska of Royal Oak, Mich., was third in 1:51.34. He was followed by Troy Dalbey of San Jose, Rich Saeger of Mission Viejo, Gary Brinkman of South Africa and Joseph Parker of Battle Creek, Mich. Parker’s time was 1:51.90.

There were only three other finals Wednesday. Susan Habermas of Gaithersburg, Md., won the women’s 200 freestyle in 2:02.52, Whitney Hedgepeth of Petersburg, Va., won the women’s 400 individual medley in 4:51.57 and William Stapleton of Edwardsville, Ill., won the men’s 400 IM in 4:21.69.