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World Cup 8 - Day 1 Report

Jan 20, 2001  - Nick J. Thierry - SWIMNEWS

European Record Is Top Performance For Moravcova

BERLIN - It was a night of superlative swimming. At the 8th stage of the 2001 World Cup series records tumbled in the first day's finals.

The ARENA Festival now in its 19th edition has always been one of the highlights of the short course season. This year more so than ever. For the first time in the current series a very deep field of international class competitors took part --Russia 16, Canada 16, Australia 15, and Sweden 10 among the stronger nations with 103 from host Germany.

Two European, and two World Cup records were the highlights of the first day's final.

Martina Moravcova (SVK) a leading performer at five stages of this year's World Cup bettered her own European record in the 100 fly with 57.16. Her previous record was 57.54 from last December.

"Today I focused a 100% on the butterfly," Moravcova said. "Unlike at previous world cups where I swam the 200 free ahead of the fly. I want to win the prize for top swim here and the overall category. That's very important to me because I'm hardly getting any financial support from my federation."

In addition to the fly she added a second in the 50 free with 25.00, behind Therese Alshammar's (SWE) 24.63.

If nobody betters her 1013 points she'll win a car, her second in the current World Cup. She already won one in Edmonton last November at World Cup 3.

Moravoca has a tough program with 5 or more events at each stage.

Gordan Kozulj (CRO) bettered the 100 backstroke European record with 52.28, improving on the old record of 52.28.

"Since I just missed the 200 backstroke record in Sheffield two days ago," Kozulj said, "I'm not surprised at breaking the 100. This improves my chances tomorrow in the 200. I'm competing in all five European World Cups because they are held in such a short time span and I can experiment with my taper."

Two World Cup records Dimitri Komornikov (RUS) won the 200 breaststroke in 2:07.74 for a new World Cup record bettering the old mark 2:07.78 by fellow Russian Andrei Korneev from 1998.

Clementine Stoney (AUS) won the 200 backstroke in 2:06.70 a World Cup and Australian record. The cup record was 2:06.98 from 1995 by all time great Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN).

Both swimmers had disappointing Olympics missing finals.

The second best performer tonight was Thomas Rupprath (GER) in the 200 fly with 1:53.35 for his win, just of his personal best of 1:53.28.

"I'm surprised by the time," Rupprath said. "I had a break after Valencia (European SC Championships in December) and have been back in the water for just two week. Hardly enough for this event."

Veteran Sandra Volker (GER) won the 50 back in 27.69. "After my disappointment last year (disqualification at the Europeans, missing finals in the 100 back at the Olympics) I've decided to continue for another four years. I'm in full training, and have just finished a six-day power training with cross-country skiing in Norway. Many underestimate the value of such training."

Australia leads in the medals with 12 (6-3-3), Russia second with 9 (4-3-3) and Germany 10 (3-3-5). 19 countries of the just over 30 have won medals.

Finals were held at 2:45pm with live television coverage by ZDF, the second German channel. Competition ends tommorrow at the same time with 17 more events.


MEDAL TOTALS AFTER 17 EVENTS
GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL
AUS 6 3 3 12
RUS 4 2 2 8
GER 3 2 5 10
SVK 1 1 0 2
CRO 1 0 0 1
SWE 1 0 0 1
USA 1 0 0 1
CAN 0 1 2 3
FRA 0 1 1 2
JPN 0 1 1 2
ARG 0 1 0 1
BLR 0 1 0 1
LTU 0 1 0 1
ITA 0 1 0 1
SLO 0 1 0 1
RSA 0 1 0 1
POL 0 1 0 1
CZE 0 0 1 1
DEN 0 0 1 1
17 18 16 51

Rating Summary of Top Performances Day 1
1)	1013	57.16	100 fly W	Martina Moravcova,76,SVK
2)	1001	1:53.35	200 fly M	Thomas Rupprath,77,GER
3)	1000	2:06.70	200 back W	Clementine Stoney,82,AUS
4)	999	2:07.74	200 breast M	Dimitri Komornikov,81,RUS
5)	993	1:53.96	200 fly M	Anatoli Poliakov,80,RUS
6)	992	2:08.32	200 breast M	Fabio Farabegoli,76,ITA
7)	989	24.63	50 free W	Therese Alshammar,77,SWE
8)	989	27.69	50 back W	Sandra Volker,74,GER
9)	987	47.53	100 free M	Michael Klim,77,AUS
10)	986	4:09.39	400 im M	Grant McGregor,78,AUS
11)	984	52.24	100 back M	Gordan Kozulj,76,CRO
12)	984	4:09.78	400 im M	Alexei Kovriguine,81,RUS
13)	984	47.61	100 free M	Jose M. Meolans,78,ARG