Life in the fast lane
Nineteen world long-course swimming records and 20 world short-course records have fallen this year. All but one of the new long-course marks and 17 of the short-course marks have one thing in common: all the swimmers were wearing a Speedo LZR Racer. Noteworthy exceptions: Federica Pellegrini of Italy was wearing the Arena R-Evolution on her way to the 400-meter free standard, and Russia wore that suit on its way to victory in the medley relay at the world short course championships, which concluded Sunday in Manchester, England. All 18 world records broken in England over the last five days featured swimmers wearing the LZR Racer bodysuits:
SHORT-COURSE RECORDS SET IN ENGLAND
* April 9: 400m medley -- Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) 4:26.52
* April 9: 4x100m freestyle -- USA, 3:08.44 (Ryan Lochte, Bryan Lundquist, Nathan Adrian and Doug Van Wie). The last swimmer here wore the new Tyr suit. The Netherlands also raced inside previous WR, all in LZRs.
* April 9: 4x200m freestyle -- Netherlands 7:38.90 (Inge Dekker, Femke Heemskerk, Marleen Veldhuis and Ranomi Kromowidjojo). Note: the next two teams, Britain (7:38.96) and Australia (7:39.01) also raced more than seven seconds inside previous world record.
* April 10: 50m breaststroke -- Jessica Hardy (USA) 29.58
* April 11: 200m backstroke -- Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) 2:00.91
* April 11: 50m butterfly -- Felicity Galvez (Australia) 25.32
* April 11: 50m freestyle -- Duje Draganja (Croatia) 20.81
* April 11: 200m medley -- Ryan Lochte (USA) 1:51.56
* April 11: 4x100m medley -- USA, 3:51.36
* April 12: 100m medley -- Ryan Lochte (USA) 51.25
* April 12: 200m medley -- Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) 2:06.13
* April 12: 4x100m freestyle -- Netherlands 3:29.42 (Hinkelien Schreuder, Femke Heemskerk, Inge Dekker and Marleen Veldhuis). Note: 51.43 split, fastest in history.
* April 13: 50m backstroke -- Sanja Jovanovic (Croatia) 26.37
* April 13: 200m backstroke -- Markus Rogan (Austria) 1:47.84
* April 13: 100m medley -- Ryan Lochte (USA) 51.15
* April 13: 100m butterfly -- Felicity Galvez (Australia) 55.89
* April 13: 50m freestyle -- Marleen Veldhuis (Netherlands) 23.25
* April 13: 4x100m medley men -- Russia, 3:24.29 (Stanislav Donets, Sergey Geybel, Korotyshkin and Sukhorukov).
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Source: SwimWorld.com