SWIMMING MEET OF CHAMPIONS : Wojdat’s Victories a Bit Hollow

Artur Wojdat won every event he entered at the Swim Meet of Champions this week. But there’s something missing for him.

Uwe Dassler.

Wojdat has won three events in three days at the meet, which is being held at the Marguerite Recreation Center in Mission Viejo. On Saturday, he finished first in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 3 minutes 55.60 seconds.

He held off Carsten Kulhmorgen and Sebastian Wiese during the last 100 meters for the victory. Kulhmorgen and Wiese are both from East Germany, but they are not the East Germans Wojdat was hoping to compete against.

“I saw Uwe in Monaco about a month ago and he said there was a chance that he might be swimming against me here,” Wojdat said. “It would have been great to go against him this week.”

Wojdat, a native of Poland, and Dassler have competed against each other many times, including the 1988 Olympics.

Dassler won the gold medal in the 400 freestyle; Wojdat took the bronze.

“I first met Uwe at the European championships in 1985,” Wojdat said. “I don’t think he knew who I was then. He was already an established swimmer and I was this little squirt trying to get there. But I’ve caught up now.”

He may have even passed Dassler, who was sixth in the 400 at the Charlotte meet in 4:02.14.

“I heard Uwe had a shoulder problem last year and that slowed him down,” Wojdat said. “I’m sure he’ll be ready for the Goodwill Games.”

Wojdat will also be in Seattle, swimming the 200 and 400 freestyles, the latter against Dassler.

In other action Saturday, Janet Evans won her third and fourth events of the meet. She took the 400 freestyle (4:13.75) and 200 backstroke (2:19.66).

Evans was expected to win the freestyle, in which she holds the world record, but the backstroke was a different matter. Evans was only the third fastest qualifier, but touched out Katrin Wessle of East Germany, who finished in 2:17.59.

In the 50 freestyle, Steve Grams set a meet record of 23.23 in the preliminaries. Grams won the final in 23.28.

East Germany set a meet record of 3:52.04, breaking the mark of 3:52.73 held by the Longhorn Swim Club.