Roland Schoeman of South Africa broke one world record and narrowly missed another at the short-course swimming World Cup on Tuesday.
Schoeman broke German Thomas Rupprath’s world record in the 100m individual medley by ,07s, clocking 52,51s in Eriksdalsbadet’s fast short-course pool.
Fellow South African Ryk Neethling was second in 52,61s.
Schoeman also dominated the 100m freestyle in 46,45s, more than half a second ahead of Neethling. Schoeman’s time was the fastest ever in a World Cup, but ,2s seconds behind American Ian Crocker’s world record.
Ed Moses of the United States won both breaststroke events, continuing his unbeaten streak in the Swedish capital.
Moses won the 50m breaststroke in 26,75, and followed it up with a victory in the 200m, clocking 2 minutes, 5 seconds.
With the two wins, Moses remained undefeated in Stockholm, where he swept all three breaststroke events last year and broke the 50m and 200m world records in 2002.
”That’s why I keep coming back,” Moses said. ”The crowd’s great, the pool’s fast.”
Swedish home favourites Josefin Lillhage and Therese Alshammarwon the women’s 200m freestyle and 50m freestyle respectively. Lillhage finished in 1:55,40, more than one second ahead of Melanie Marshall of Britain, who timed 1:56,56. Yu Yang of China was third with 1:57,28.
”I’m not at the top of my form right now, so it’s nice to see I can swim this fast anyway,” Lillhage said.
Alshammar, who holds the world record, won in Stockholm for the fifth year in a row.
”I’ve had great practices all throughout the winter,” Alshammar said. ”I’m the defending champion here, so I’m very pleased.”
Takeshi Matsuda, Hidemasa Sano, and Ryo Takayasu secured a Japanese triple in the 200m butterfly, and Sano also won the 400m individual medley.
The two-day event will end on Wednesday. – Sapa-AP