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Saturday August 1, 2009

Lochte wipes out Phelps’ world record as six more tumble

ROME: When in Rome, throw out the record book.

No need for one at the fastest show on water.

Even with Michael Phelps sitting in the stands, seven more world records fell at the world championships on Thursday. For those who have lost count, that’s 29 over five days at the Foro Italico — and there’s still three days to go.

At last summer’s Beijing Olympics, swimmers broke 25 records at the Water Cube, and the world thought that would be tough to beat.

Records fell so fast in Thursday’s nine events that the crowd barely had time to cheer one swimmer before another mark dropped.

Mark Spitz found the whole thing so amusing and said that he was planning to get back in the pool, as long as he could wear one of the bodysuits.

“The suits that are breaking world records are so good that today I am announcing my comeback, effective immediately and ending on Dec. 31, 2009,” the 59-year-old winner of seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games said.

Ryan Lochte got things rolling by breaking Phelps’ mark in the 200m individual medley, with the former record holder cheering him on. The Chinese women finished it off with a flourish, taking down the 4x200 freestyle relay mark by more than two seconds.

A bare-chested Phelps joined in the celebration when Lochte touched in 1:54.10. That broke Phelps’ gold-medal time of 1:54.23 from Beijing, and Lochte did it wearing the year-old Speedo LZR Racer, just like Phelps the previous night when he broke his own world record in the 200m butterfly.

“Everyone is complaining about all these new suits, blah blah blah, and I go out there and wear the same suit that’s been out there and I just give it to them,” Lochte said.

In one of the most anticipated races of the night, Brazil’s Cesar Cielo became the first swimmer to break 47 seconds in the 100m freestyle and have it stand, holding off France’s Alain Bernard.

Cielo won the furious down-and-back race in 46.91, beating Eamon Sullivan’s mark of 47.05 set during the semi-finals of the Beijing Olympics.

Bernard won the Olympic gold when he beat Sullivan in the final. But the big Frenchman had to settle for silver in Rome at 47.12, with countryman Fred Bousquet also reaching the medal stand in third.

China’s Zhao Jing won the women’s 50m backstroke, a non-Olympic event, in 27.06. That knocked off the record set a day earlier by Russia’s Anastasia Zueva (27.38), who didn’t even get a medal in the final.

Schipper rallied on the final lap of the 200m breast to win in 2:03.41. That beat the 2:04.14 posted a day earlier by American Mary Descenza in the preliminaries. Like Zueva, Descenza not only lost her record but a medal by finishing fourth.

China had the final record of the night, edging out the US in the 4x200m freestyle. The Chinese built a big lead and held on to win in 7:42.08, which easily surpassed the mark of 7:44.31 set by Australia at the Beijing Games. — AP


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