Three More World Records were broken in Italy on Tuesday, as the 2012 FINA World Masters Championships rolled through its third day in Riccione.
The headline was Laura Val, who swam a 2:21.48 to break her own World Record in the women’s 60-64 age group in the 200 free. Val is best remembered for her incredible swim in 2011 where she broke 6 World Records en route to a single 1500 free result, is taking records one-at-a-time these days, but is still rewriting the record books.
That broke her own mark of 2:22.86 set last year, and won the World Championship by 15 seconds. What’s really incredible about Val is that she’s still developing – breaking more-and-more records even as she’s aging. In Masters’ Swimming, it’s not as expected to get faster this season than you were last, especially in the over 60 age groups. But Val is still crushing her own best times.
In the men’s 400 IM, two other World Records went down. First, France’s Nicolas Granger took down the 400 IM record in the 45-49 age group with a 4:44.76. That took down the 2010 record of American Jerome Frentsos of 4:47.65.
Then, Germany’s Uwe Wolk took down the age group World Record in the 40-44 age group with a 4:43.00 – knocking over four seconds off of the old mark held by his countryman Peter Bermel.
Among other notable results were Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen, one of the most famous Masters Swimmers in the world, winning the 50-54 women’s 400 IM in 5:32.41 – just missing a World Record herself. Nielsen took a two-year break from competition; and now beginning a new age group this year at 50 years old has already been shredding more records. She is an American, who lives in San Diego, but competes under the French flag with the French team Athletic Club Boulonge Billancourt for relay purposes (she has been a part of a World Record setting relay with her French teammates).