U.S. Swimming Championships : Daland Wins the 1,500 as She Pleases

Leslie Daland, ranked No. 1 in the world in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle, won that event easily Friday night to claim her first national swimming title.

Several other athletes joined Daland, 17, from Westlake, as first-time title winners on the closing night of the Phillips 66/U.S. Swimming National Long Course Championships.

But one of those new champions, 14-year-old Beth Barr of Pensacola, Fla., admitted, “It didn’t seem like a real national senior meet.”

The country’s top-rated swimmers in most events were absent, preparing for the World Championships, which open in Spain next week.

Barr, for instance, did not have Betsy Mitchell to contend with in the 100 backstroke. She won in 1:04 flat, almost four seconds over Mitchell’s U.S. record.

But Daland’s specialty, the 1,500, is not a women’s event at the World Championships. She won by seven seconds over Janet Evans, another Californian, on Friday night, and her time of 16:19.92 is the world’s second best for the year.

The men’s 1,500 winner was Gary Brinkman, the South African ineligible for world championship or Olympic competition because of his country’s racial policies.

Brinkman, who was timed in 15:26.32 Friday night, won the 400 and 800 freestyles earlier in the meet. He and Tiffany Cohen were the meet’s only triple champions.

Brinkman’s team, San Jose Aquatics, won the men’s point competition in the meet, and Cohen’s team, Mission Bay of Florida, took the women’s title.