Fina seventh World Short Course Championships in Dubai-Austin gets 50m freestyle record, six PBs |23 December 2010

At the end of the championship, held at Dubai’s new Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex from December 15-19, Cornel Marculescu, an executive director of swimming world governing body Fina, said: "This has been probably the best 25m championships ever organised by Fina.

“The number of championship records and four world records, for me, is unbelievable and astonishing."

Although most of the world's best swimmers had gathered in Dubai for the last meeting of the year, there were fears that for the first time in more than a century, not a single world best time would be broken.

These fears came in the wake of Fina outlawing, on January 1, 2010, the hi-tech bodysuits that had dominated the swimming scene in the two previous years and helped swimmers like American Michael Phelps, Australian Leisel Jones, Italian Federica Pellegrini, Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry and Frenchman Alain Bernard to break records by the dozen each time they plunged into the pools.

Even though they did not feature among the medals or make the finals, the two Seychellois swimmers did not disappoint. Shannon Austin rewrote the record books once and got six PBs, while Ron Roucou got six PBs.

Austin, who has been training in South Africa since January, pulverised the 50m freestyle record with a time of 27.96 seconds to finish 62nd out of 100 swimmers. The previous record of 28.34 seconds was held by her big sister Shrone Austin.

She also got PBs in the 100m freestyle (58th out of 89 in 1:00.39, previous best was 1:03.74), 200m freestyle (58th out of 71 in 2:10.67, previous best 2:12.67), 400m freestyle (37th out of 44 in 4:33.84, previous best 4:40.14), 50m butterfly (56th out of 75 in 30.96 seconds, previous best 32.49 seconds), 100m butterfly (54th out of 59 in 1:08.51, previous best 1:11.77) and 200m butterfly (28th out of 29 in 2:31.86, previous best 2:36.92).

“The short course championship was very interesting and it helped me work on my turns. I’m happy I got the 50m freestyle record. I like it,” Austin told Sports Nation.

Locally based breaststroker Roucou, who aspires to become a pilot and is studying at the School of Advanced Level Studies, has returned with six PBs clocked in the 50m freestyle in 26.75 seconds for 105th place out of 130 (previous best 26.95 seconds), 100m freestyle in 1:00.10 for 107th place out of 119 (previous best 1:03.22), 50m breaststroke in 34.22 seconds for 77th place out of 85 (previous best 34.92 seconds), 100m breaststroke in 1:17.30 for 79th place out of 81 (previous best 1:17.39), 200m breaststroke in 2:52.78 for 54th place out of 54 (previous best 3:04.92) and 50m butterfly in 30.47 seconds for 106th place out of 116 (old time 31.00 seconds).

“I performed well although I was still doing endurance training and had not yet worked on speed. I feel I can go even faster,” said the 17-year-old.

With a record-breaking seven medals – six gold and a sliver – and two world records, American Ryan Lochte finished as the best male swimmer at the championship, while the women’s award went to 20-year-old Spaniard Mireia Belmonte with four medals – three gold in the 200m butterfly, 200m IM and 400m IM, and a silver in the 800m freestyle.

Lochte, 26, won all five individual races – 200m IM (world record time of 1:50.08), 400m IM (world record time of 3:55.50), 200m backstroke (1:46.68), 200m freestyle (1:41.08) and 100m IM (50.86 seconds) – he entered. His sixth gold medal came in the 4x100m medley relay (3:20.99) with the American team, who won silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

The other two world records were bettered by Russia’s men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team (6:49.04) and China’s women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team (7:35.94).

A total of 22 countries won medals in Dubai and the top-five nations were the USA (25 medals, comprising 12 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze), Russia (10 medals – 4 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze), Spain (8 medals – 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze), China (14 medals – 3 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze), and France (8 medals – 3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze).

South Africa finished as the best African team in eighth position with three medals – 2 gold and 1 silver.

G. G.