Swimmers set 4 world records at Berlin World Cup
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-19 08:16:56   Print

    BERLIN, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Swimmers from all around the globe have set four new world records at the short course Arena World Cup in Berlin, motivating the top swimmers to train harder for the Beijing Olympic Games.

    The most shining star in the two-day event was Swedish Stefan Nystrand, who splashed to two world records on Saturday and Sunday receptively.

    On Sunday, Nystrand bettered the world record in the men's 50-meter freestyle by clocking 20.93 seconds, and a day earlier, a world record in the 100-meter freestyle by finishing in 45.83 seconds.

    The 26-year-old said his objective in the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games is to bring home with two gold medals.

    "It's my aim to keep on improving, especially with regard to the Olympic Games next year. I would like to capture two gold medals there," he said.

    The veteran competed at the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004, but his best performance was a fourth place.

    For the women's events, Dutch Marleen Veldhuis updated the records she herself would not have imagined.

    On Saturday, Veldhuis set the world record in the women's 50-meter freestyle by clocking 23.58 seconds, lowering the old record by 0.01 second.

    On Sunday, the 28-year-old veteran marked a new European record of women's 100m freestyle.

    The last world record was set by Brazilian Thiago Pereira on Sunday, who clocked 1:53.14 in the men's 200-meter individual medley.

    Pereira also won the gold medal in the men's 400-meter medley a day earlier, just shy of the world record by 0.26 second.

    "After the good result in yesterday's 400-meter individual medley, I narrowly missed the world record, I knew I could attack the world record in the 200-meter today," he said after the race on Sunday.

    South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan also seized two golds over the past two days.

    Park clocked 14:34.39 in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle to claim the gold medal.

    Despite exhaustion from the long race, Park participate in the men's 200-meter freestyle just five minutes after his first race. He finished with 1:42.22 to seal his second gold medal.

    "It's no problem for Tae Hwan to compete on such a high level in two successive races," said Park's coach Seok Ki Park.

    "We have not decided yet if Tae Hwan is going to compete in the200m freestyle at the Beijing Olympic Games. Our priority are the 400m and 1500 freestyles," he added.

    Comparing the Berlin event to the previous short-course series, Chinese coach Liu Haitao told Xinhua that world swimmers demonstrated high level performance in Berlin.

    "The performance in Berlin is the best, quite a lot of top swimmer gathered here," he said.

    Liu said the competition for the Beijing Olympic Games will be fierce.

    "Everybody is trying his effort, but for us, we are doing our own work," he added.

Editor: Sun Yunlong
Related Stories
Pereira sets new world record on men's 200m Medley
Home Sports
  Back to Top