Stetsenko, Cochrane amongst world record breakers

Ukraine’s Anna Stetsenko and Australian Blake Cochrane set new world records over the weekend (17-19 April) at the Internationale Deutsche Meisterschaft in Berlin, Germany, as they showed their form heading to July’s World Championships.

The pair were amongst a group of 22 swimmers who set new marks over the three days to add to the ten set on the first day of competition on Thursday (16 April).

Ukraine appear to have produced their latest top performer in S13 athlete Stetsenko, as she beat former US world record holder Rebecca Myers to the gold in the women’s 400m freestyle. Touching in at 4:23.01, newcomer Stetsenko shaved over two seconds off Myers’ time which stood at 4:25.04.

World champion Cochrane (1:16.84) was in superb form in the men’s 100m breaststroke, bringing down his own world SB7 best by just under one second.

The Australian was also part of a series of swimmers who set world records in events that will not be on the Worlds programme in Glasgow, Great Britain, from 13-19 July or Rio 2016.

Cochrane stormed to a new SB7 world record in the men’s 50m breaststroke final with a 35.52 after teammate Matthew Levy (35.61) bought down the time in the heats.

Germany’s Torben Schmidtke took down the SB6 mark twice in the same event, swimming to a 37.30 in the finals after also breaking the record in the morning (37.32).

It was a similar story for Cochrane’s compatriot Daniel Fox, who lowered the men’s 100m freestyle S14 record twice in one day, ending up with a 53.54.

Fellow Australians Jesse Aungles (2:25.76) and Sean Russo (2:15.21) joined the party with new S8 and S13 marks in the 200m backstroke respectively. Brendan Hall rounded off the record haul for his country, swimming to a new 800m freestyle S9 time of 8:36.64.

The men’s world records also included a new 200m butterfly S9 time for Greece’s Dimisthenis Michalentzakis (2:13.09) and an S11 best for Spain’s Israel Oliver (2:26.70) over the same distance. Oliver also swam to a 27.99 to bring down the men’s 50m butterfly S11 time.

Italy’s Vincenzo Boni (1:44.17) is the new world’s fastest men’s 100m backstroke S3 swimmer, whilst Iceland’s Jon Margeir Sverisson (4:13.70) claimed the men’s 400m freestyle S14 mark.

The USA’s multiple world and Paralympic medallist Jessica Long picked up three new S8 marks in the women’s 400m individual medley (5:38.73), 200m backstroke (2:53.27) and 200m freestyle (2:18.42) to follow on from her 800m freestyle performance on Thursday. In the 200m freestyle, Long had already improved on the time in the morning’s heats with a 2:19.09.

Long’s teammate Meyers reclaimed her form in the women’s 50m butterfly, swimming to a new S13 best of 29.81 whilst Spain’s Sarai Gascon (31.84) bettered the S9 mark. The US swimmer completed an excellent weekend in the pool with an S13 world record in the 200m freestyle of 2:08.28.

Russia’s Anna Krivshina (31.43) claimed the S13 world best in the 50m backstroke after bringing the time down in the morning with a 32 second swim.

There were four new world marks in the women’s 200m breaststroke as the Netherlands’ Lisa Braber (3:14.96, SB7) won gold ahead of the USA’s Colleen Young (2:51.36, SB13) in silver and Braber’s teammate Chantalle Zijderveld (2:53.51, SB9) with bronze. Cyprus’ Karolina Pelendritou (2:51.72) finished outside the medals but still sealed a new SB12 best.

Zijderveld (35.62) tasted success once again in the 50m backstroke and compatriot Lisette Teunissen (3:28.26) brought down the 200m freestyle S3 mark.

The women’s world records were completed by Italy’s Arjola Trimi (1:29.51, S4) in the women’s 100m freestyle and Great Britain’s Chloe Davis (2:27.42, S14) in the 200m backstroke.

Full results are available at the IDM’s website.

Glasgow 2015 runs from 13-19 July and is set to feature around 650 swimmers from 50 countries. Tickets and media accreditation are available now.

All records and subject to ratification by IPC Swimming.