U.S. Has Record Day in the Pool : Four World Swim Marks Set by Evans, Jager Wharton, Barrowman

U.S. swimmers, their international status dropping in recent years, looked as strong as ever Sunday at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo.

Janet Evans, Tom Jager, Dave Wharton and Mike Barrowman set world records, the first time in modern swimming history that U.S. swimmers set four in one day, team officials said.

Evans, who won three gold medals at the Seoul Games last year, broke her world record in the women’s 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8 minutes 16.22 seconds, almost a second faster than her mark of 8:17.12 set last year.

In the men’s 50-meter freestyle, Jager swam a 22.12 to erase Matt Biondi’s record of 22.14. Biondi, who won the U.S. title two weeks ago, was unable to compete because of scheduling conflicts.

Jager, who was disqualified for a false start at the U.S. championships, was not expected to compete in the 50. But because he qualified for the meet in the 100, he was eligible to enter the 50, one U.S. coach said.

Wharton broke Hungarian Tamas Darnyi’s 1988 world mark of 2:00.17 in the 200-meter individual medley, winning in 2:00.11.

In qualifying for the men’s 200-meter breaststroke, Barrowman was fastest in 2:12.89, breaking his world mark of 2:12.90 set Aug. 3 in the U.S. championships. Later, he won the final in 2:13.09.

The Americans finished the meet with 25 gold medals, followed by Canada, Australia and China with three each, and Japan and Suriname with one each.

“All and all it was a great day for U.S. swimming,” said Don Wagner, Evans’ Fullerton Aquatics Sports Team coach, in a telephone interview from Tokyo. “I think American swimming has lots to look forward to.

“It was kind of contagious. Mike Barrowman set the first one and I think people then felt they could too.”

Evans said she skipped the 200-meter individual medley earlier Sunday to concentrate on the 800.

Evans, who turns 18 next week, finished about 25 meters ahead of runner-up Janelle Elford of Australia, who clocked 8:31.16. American Julie Kole was third in 8:32.56.

“I felt good from the beginning so I thought I could set a world record,” Evans told Associated Press.

Evans won four gold medals in the Pan Pacific meet, and is unbeaten in her last 22 races.

“She looked really good,” Wagner said. “I think she trained harder this summer than she ever has. I thought she had a chance after just missing the record in the 400 free. We were pretty certain if someone had been close to her she’d have gotten the 400, too.”

She led at 25 meters and then pulled away from her opponents. However, Evans was just off world record-pace until about 600 meters when she made a move, Wagner said. Evans, who will attend Stanford this fall, increased her speed to the finish.

“A lot of people have asked me this year, ‘Has Janet gone as fast as she can go?’ ” Wagner said. “This answers their questions.”

Jager said he usually does not do well in the preliminaries because he relies on psyching up for races.

But he said he was motivated by a fast preliminary swim: “My time in the preliminary had me pumped up,” he said. “I know I had a real legitimate shot at the world record.”

Andrew Baildon of Australia was second in 22.54 and Steve Crocker of the United States was third in 22.78.

“I felt good in this morning’s swim in the preliminary,” Wharton said of 200 IM record swim. “The other world records gave me inspiration.”

American Ron Karnaugh was second in 2:02.83 and Canadian Gary Anderson was third in 2:03.19.

Barrowman, who started the record-breaking day for the United States, said his inspiration came from Britain’s Nick Gillingham in Europe.

“I wasn’t training or going out to break it (the record) in the preliminary, but yesterday (Saturday), I heard Nick Gillingham tied my record so he changed my mind pretty quick on that,” Barrowman, 20, said.

Gillingham swam a 2:12.90 in the European Swimming Championship only two weeks after Barrowman broke Victor Davis’ five-year-old mark.

American Nelson Diebel was second in 2:14.94 and Canadian Jon Cleveland was third in 2:15.76.

Other U.S. winners Sunday were Jenny Thompson in the women’s 50-meter freestyle, Mary Ellen Blanchard in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke and the men’s and women’s 400-meter medley relay teams.

Some of the U.S. swimmers left today for Atlanta where the United States is playing host to the Soviet Union in a dual meet.