Lock in your Fantasy Swimming picks throughout the week as part of the World Short Course Championships festivities!
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 19. FRANCE's Camille Muffat backhalfed her way to the final individual gold medal on offer at the FINA World Short Course Championships.
Muffat hit the wall in 1:52.29 for the top-ranked time in the world this year in the women's 200 free, clearing Femke Heemskerk's previously top-ranked effort of 1:52.42. Muffat bettered her French, and meet, record of 1:53.17 set earlier in the meet and moved up to third all-time in the event's history. Only Federica Pellegrini (1:51.17) and Allison Schmitt (1:51.67) have been faster.
USA's Katie Hoff raced to second with a silver-winning time of 1:52.91 for sixth all time, lowering her American record of 1:53.37 set as the relay leadoff of the U.S. 800 free relay earlier in the meet. Schmitt, however, is the fastest American ever in the event with a time USA Swimming did not ratify. USA Swimming elected to ignore all techsuit times after it implemented its techsuit ban domestically in Oct. 2009, even if the swim was done legally under FINA rules prior to the worldwide ban on Jan. 1, 2010.
Australia's Kylie Palmer checked in with a third-place time of 1:52.96, lowering the Australian record of 1:53.29 set by then Libby Lenton back in 2005. Palmer jumped up to seventh in the event's history with the performance.
China's Tang Yi (1:53.07), Australia's Blair Evans (1:55.03), Hungary's Evelyn Verraszto (1:55.06), Italy's Federica Pellegrini (1:55.24) and USA's Dana Vollmer (1:56.73) were also part of the championship heat. Tang crushed the Chinese record of 1:54.32 set by Zhu Qianwei.
