World Swimming Championships : Biondi Wins a 7th Medal; U.S. Eges East Germany

Matt Biondi won his seventh medal as the fifth World Swimming championships ended Saturday.

Biondi, who collected the most men’s medals-- three gold, one silver and three bronze--anchored the United States to victory in the final event of the 11-day meet, the men’s 400-meter medley relay.

The Americans won in 3:41.25 as Pablo Morales was timed in 52.31 seconds on the butterfly leg and Biondi was clocked in 47.78 on the freestyle leg.

West Germany was second in 3:42.26, and the bronze went to the Soviet Union in 3:42.63.

Cornelia Sirch won the final women’s event, the 200-meter backstroke, to give East Germany its 13th gold out of a possible 16 in the women’s races. Sirch won in 2:11.37 to beat American Betsy Mitchell by .02 of a second.

Although the East Germans collected the most gold medals (14 overall), the United States came out on top in total medals with 32 (9 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze) to the East Germans’ 30 (14 gold, 12 silver and 4 bronze).

In diving, Greg Louganis won the men’s platform title for the third consecutive time, adding it to the springboard title he won earlier . He was pressured by China’s Li Kongzheng but came from behind to total 668.58 points to Li’s 624.33.

Bruce Kimball of the United States had 599.91 for the bronze.

Romania’s Tamara Costache set a world record. And Mary T. Meagher struck more gold for the United States.

Costache, 17, won the championships’ first-ever women’s 50-meter freestyle in 25.28, beating her previous world best time of 24.31. East Germany’s Kristin Otto was second in 25.50, giving her a total of four golds and two silvers.

Meagher won the women’s 200-meter butterfly, with East German swimmers taking silver and bronze.

Until Meagher’s victory in 2:08.41, Mitchell was the only non-East German to have won a women’s gold, having taken the 100-meter backstroke Tuesday.

Alex Baumann, the double Olympic champion and world record-holder from Canada, was denied a world title for the second time when he was beaten in the 200-meter medley by Hungary’s Tamas Darnyi, who missed Baumann’s world mark of 2:01.42 by .15 of a second.

Vladimir Salnikov of the Soviet Union missed out on his third consecutive 1,500-meter freestyle title when he finished fourth. Rainer Henkel of West Germany took the gold in 15:05.31, Italy’s Stefano Battistelli the silver in 15:14.80 and Dan Jorgenson of the United States the bronze in 15:16.23.