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A superstar

Thorpe sets third world record in as many days

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Posted: Tuesday August 24, 1999 10:11 AM

Thorpe: "I've never experienced anything like this and I don't think I'll experience anything like it for a long time to come." AP

SYDNEY (Reuters) -- Swimming's newest superstar, Australian teenager Ian Thorpe, set his third world record in as many days at the Pan Pacific championships on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old Thorpe lowered his own 200 meters freestyle mark to one minute 46.00 seconds in Tuesday's final just 24 hours after he set the previous standard at 1:46.34 and two days after he shattered the 400 meters freestyle record.

"I've never experienced anything like this and I don't think I'll experience anything like it for a long time to come," Thorpe said.

"I never believed I'd be able to do it, but I have. It's pretty unbelievable to go so fast three nights in a row."

Krayzelburg, the Ukranian-born American who speaks fluent Russian, wiped more than a quarter of a second off the previous 100 backstroke record set by American Jeff Rouse at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when he touched the wall in 53.60 seconds.

"My goal when I came here was to set a world record but I surprised myself with that time," Krayzelburg said.

South Africa's Penny Heyns won the women's 100 breaststroke in 1:07.08 ahead of Americans Megan Quann and Kristy Kowal but was disappointed with her performance a day after she broke her own world record in the heats.

The dual Atlanta Olympic champion has set an amazing five world records in the past five weeks but ran out of steam as she bobbed her way down the final lap.

"I've had a brilliant month of racing so I can't complain but I did make a couple of mistakes tonight," she said.

Mai Nakamura provided Japan with its first gold medal of the championships after dead-heating with little-known Australian Dyana Calub in the women's 100 meters backstroke.

There was some confusion as the timing board malfunctioned, but the race referees reviewed the video back-up clock and declared a dead heat.

The electronic scoreboard was still under repair when Thorpe dived in for the start of his final, but the result was clear to everyone by the time he finished.

Compatriot Michael Klim, the reigning world champion, set off like a man possessed and was under Thorpe's world record pace at the 100 meters stage.

But Klim was unable to keep up when the flying teenager kicked away with his size 17 feet over the final lap, gliding into the wall to set yet another world record.

"I had to go out about the same speed as Michael Klim - I knew he'd go out fast," Thorpe said. "I wanted to be up with him and then try and bring it home."

Thorpe, whose perfomances over the past three days have set the swimming world buzzing, said he would attempt to lower his record even further on Wednesday by swimming the lead-off leg in the Australian 4x200 meters freestyle relay.

The Australians set the current record at last year's Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and are expected to challenge it again.

Their team also includes Grant Hackett, who had held the 200 meters individual record before Thorpe shattered it on Monday.

Hackett set the third best qualifying time but was ineligible for the final because competition rules stipulate that only two swimmers from each country can race in the final.

After three days, Australia have won five of the six gold medals in the men's event while the U.S. have collected just one, through Krayzelburg.

Krayzelburg, 23, is the reigning 100 and 200 meters backstroke champion but had never set a world record even though he had been close on several occasions.

Inspired by the rash of records to have tumbled in Sydney, Krayzelburg set out like a man on a mission, dipping 0.35 under Rouse's seven-year-old record after the first 50 meters then holding on to clip 0.26 off it by the end.

The high-tech engineering at Sydney's Olympic pool over the past week has been given much of the credit for the fast times over the past three days.

But Australia's head swimming coach Don Talbot said good old-fashioned competitiveness was a more probable explanation.

"I don't know if world records are contagious but I do know that it does tend to motivate the others," he said. "When they see someone else doing something great they want to get in on the act."

 

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