Pan Pacific Championships, Irvine, California, day 3 finals:
Women's 100m Butterfly
Yolane Kukla (AUS) showed where she may take the race one day, with a 50m split of 26.76 ahead of Christine Magnuson (USA), on 27.10. The race changed hands off the wall, Dana Vollmer (USA) wasting no time to draw level before inching ahead in the closing 25m on the way to gold in 57.56.
The battle for the minor spoils saw Magnuson get the touch over Alicia Coutts (AUS), 57.95 to 57.99, Kukla locked out on 58.22. The times compares with the 57.32 and 57.40 times posted in Budapest by Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) and Fran Halsall (GBR) last week.
The Swimnetwork commentator, doing a grand job, got a little excited in the heat of the moment as the red world-record line flashed up in the screen: "They're just off"... no they weren't: by the time Sjostrom's Rome blast hit the wall, the Pan Pac girls had barely breached the 5m markers. Different sport.
A remarkable note in the splits below: Mary T was out a fair whack slower than the rest of our leading examples but she was just as quick coming home (taking away the shiny anomaly), 30 years ago come Shanghai 2011. The legend was the only one on the list capable of a 2:05 200m too, though watch for Sjostrom, a teenager who goes a 1:57 200 free but has yet to test herself when it counts at the double on her "best" stroke".
Meanwhile, Vollmer was delighted with her win, which she put down to the surprise appearance of her beau: "Andy Grant, my fiancee, showed up and was there when I got off the bus - and it definitely helps knowing he's up there."
Trans-Atlantic splits:
- Sjostrom: 26.75; 57.32
- Halsall: 26.53; 57.40
- Vollmer: 27.22; 57.56
Shiny best:
- Sjostrom: 26.94; 56.06
Historic:
- De Bruijn 2000: 26.67; 56.61
- Meagher 1981: 27.75; 57.93
Trans-Atlantic medals:
- Pan Pacs: 57.56; 57.95; 57.99
- Euro 1-3: 57.32; 57.40; 57.80
Records
Shiny suit era
- WR/ER: 56.06 Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) Jul 2009
February 1 2008
- WR/ER: 56.61 Inge de Bruijn (NED) Sep 2000
