Sun topples oldest swimming record

SHANGHA – Chinese teenager Sun Yang toppled swimming’s oldest world record yesterday when he shattered Grant Hackett’s 10-year mark in the men’s 1500m, ensuring a rousing finish to the Shanghai world championships.

Sun, roared on by a capacity crowd, touched in 14min 34,14sec, 0,42sec inside the Australian’s legendary world best set at the 2001 championships in Fukuoka.Hackett’s record was the only men’s record to survive the infamous super-suits era, when muscle-compressing swimwear helped set more than 200 new marks in just two years.Sun’s record, on the final night, was only the second to fall in Shanghai, two years after polyurethane-clad swimmers set 43 new bests at the 2009 championships in Rome.The other record this week went to US star Ryan Lochte, who underlined his supremacy on Sunday with a superb fifth gold medal, matching his illustrious team-mate Michael Phelps’ haul from 2009.Lochte led from start to finish at the Sea Crown stadium to defend his 2009 title in 4min 7,13sec, more than four seconds ahead of team-mate Tyler Clary with Japan’s Yuya Horihata third.Also on the final night, American world record-holder Jessica Hardy made a successful return to the world stage from a doping ban when she won the 50m breaststroke ahead of defending champion Yuliya Efimova of Russia.Hardy, who missed the 2008 Olympics after a positive test and was serving a one-year ban during the 2009 world championships, timed 30.19sec – outside her record of 29,80 – with team-mate Rebecca Soni third.’I am really excited, I’ve trained so hard for that,’ Hardy said. ‘I am really, really glad that I did it. I performed very well. All of us did a good job.’Meanwhile British world record-holder Liam Tancock defended his 50m backstroke title from France’s Camille Lacourt and Gerhard Zandberg of South Africa.And Sweden’s Therese Alshammar won the women’s 50m freestyle ahead of Dutch swimmers Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Marleen Veldhuis.Lochte has long played second fiddle to Phelps but he has called the tune in Shanghai, beating his contemporary in the 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley, which he won in world record time.The 26-year-old also won the 200m backstroke and gave the United States a record fourth straight 4x200m medley world title with a super-fast final leg, after a slow lead-off from Phelps.Meanwhile FINA’s doping control review board chairman Andrew Pipe said there were no positive dope tests during the meet, which was hit by controversy when Brazil’s Cesar Cielo escaped a ban for testing positive for a banned diuretic. – Nampa-AFP