World Swimming Championships : Salnikov Has Reign Ended by Henkel

West German Rainer Henkel ended the eight-year reign of Soviet swim star Vladimir Salnikov when he won the 400-meter freestyle Thursday at the World Swimming Championships.

Also in men’s competition, Matt Biondi used a world-record pace (48.29) over the final 100 meters to rally the United States sprint relay team from fourth to the gold medal in a time of 3:19.89. Biondi holds the world record in the 100-meter freestyle at 48.74.

In women’s competition, fifteen-year-old Kornelia Gressler beat American Mary T. Meagher in the women’s 100-meter butterfly, and Sylvia Gerasch set East Germany’s fifth world record of the championships when she clipped .18 of a second from her own 100-meter breaststroke mark.

Henkel took the lead early in the men’s 400 and never relaxed, finishing in 3 minutes 50.05 seconds. The time bettered Salnikov’s World Championship record of 3:51.30, but was off the 3:47.80 world mark of West German Michael Gross.

East German European champion Uwe Dassler finished strongly to take the silver in 3:51.26, .07 ahead of American Dan Jorgensen.

Salnikov, 26, who won World Championship gold medals in both the 400 and 1,500 meters in 1978 and 1982, finished fifth, two seconds behind Henkel.

Gressler, the European champion, and compatriot Kristin Otto gave East Germany its third one-two victory of the championships, in 59.51 and 59.66, respectively. Olympic champion Meagher was third in 59.98.

Gerasch, the European 100-meter breaststroke champion, was timed in a record 1:08.11 to win by .30 over teammate Silke Hoerner.