April 13, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1429

MANCHESTER, April 12: Five world records were shattered on an extraordinary night at the World Short-course Swimming Championships on Friday.

Zimbabwe’s Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry broke her second world record in three days, claiming her third title in the 200 metres backstroke as the world record tally soared to nine.

World marks were also set by Australian Felicity Galvez in the women’s 50 butterfly, Croatia’s Duje Draganja in the men’s 50 freestyle, American Ryan Lochte in the 200 individual medley and the US in the women’s 4x100 medley relay.

Coventry, who broke the 400 individual medley world mark on Wednesday, raced away in the 200 backstroke in two minutes 00.91sec, annihilating the 2:03.24 world mark set by Japan’s Reiko Nakamura in Tokyo on Feb 23 this year.

Olympic silver medallist Draganja won in 20.81sec to beat the 20.93 world mark set by Stefan Nystrand of Sweden last November and retain his 50 freestyle crown ahead of Briton Mark Foster, bidding to become swimming’s oldest world champion.

Foster, the four-time 50 freestyle gold medallist, had to settle for silver in 21.31.

Lochte, who retained his 400 individual medley crown on Thursday, won an enthralling duel with newly-crowned 100 backstroke champion Liam Tancock of Britain.

The American triumphed in 1:51.56 to beat the 1:52.99 set by Laszlo Cseh of Hungary at the European short-course championships in Debrecen last December.

Galvez clocked 25.32 in the 50 butterfly to shave 0.01sec off Swede Anna-Karin Kammerling’s 2005 mark.

The US won the medley relay in 3:51.36, beating the 3:51.84 set by Australia at the 2006 World Short-course Championships in Shanghai. Australia were second.

US-based Coventry, who also won the 100 backstroke on Thursday, was way inside world record schedule all the way in the 200 backstroke and won by nearly two seconds.

Briton Lizzie Simmonds, who was also inside the old world mark in 2:02.60, was second with defending champion Margaret Hoelzer third.

However, Coventry was denied a fourth gold later in the evening when she finished third in the 100 individual medley behind victor Australian Shayne Reese.

Kylie Palmer, silver medallist in Thursday’s 800 freestyle, struck gold in the women’s 400 freestyle in 3:59.23 as Australia’s women won three titles on the night.

Russia’s Yuri Prilukov claimed his third successive world short-course 400 freestyle title, winning in 3:37.35 to add a silver to the bronze he took in Wednesday’s 200 freestyle.

Marleen Veldhuis, who shared a world record in the Dutch women’s 4x200 freestyle relay on Wednesday, got her second gold of the championships with a runaway win in the 100 freestyle.—Reuters