U.S. Swimming : Janet Evans Posts Her Third Record-Breaking Performance

Janet Evans won the 800-meter freestyle Tuesday night at the U.S. Swimming Open and set her third meet record.

The 5-foot 4-inch Evans broke away from the field at the 300-meter mark and won in a time of 8 minutes 24.71 seconds. The time shattered the meet record of 8:32.70 held by East Germany’s Astrid Strauss.

“I would have liked it if somebody had been up there with me,” Evans said. “It’s been so long since I swam against somebody side-by-side, I don’t know what it feels like.”

On Sunday night, Evans broke the world record in the 400-meter freestyle in 4:05.45. Monday night, she broke her own meet record in the 400-meter individual medley, and Tuesday she dominated the field in the 800 freestyle.

Six months ago, Evans’ time in the 800 freestyle would have been only nine one-hundredths of a second off the world record. However, she and East German star Anke Mohring knocked five seconds off the record this summer and set the stage for an Olympic showdown in Seoul, South Korea next September.

In other action in the final night of the meet, Dara Torres swam the fastest U.S. time of 1987 in the 100-meter freestyle with a 55.72 clocking. Torres has the No. 4 ranking in the world and is only .52 seconds away from the top spot. Mary Wayte, who trains with Torres at the University of Florida, was second.