MANCHESTER, April 10: Olympic gold medallist Kirsty Coventry led the way as three world records tumbled on the opening day of the World Short-course Swimming Championships on Wednesday.

Coventry broke the women’s 400 metres individual medley short-course mark which had stood for six years and the US men and Dutch women brought the evening at the MEN Arena to a tumultuous conclusion, shattering a pair of relay records.

Zimbabwe’s Coventry, Olympic 200 backstroke champion, clocked four minutes 26.52sec to beat the 4:27.83 set by Yana Klochkova of Ukraine in Paris on Jan 19, 2002.

Coventry, coming out for the final barely 20 minutes after setting a championship record 57.99 in the 100 backstroke semi-finals, led from start to finish, chased home by Britain’s Hannah Miley.

Miley, the fastest final qualifier, hit the wall in 4:27.27, also inside the old world mark.

The US quartet of Ryan Lochte, Bryan Lundquist, Nathan Adrian and Doug Van Wie swum home in the men’s 100 freestyle relay in 3:08.44 to beat the 3:09.57 mark set by Sweden at the world short-course championships in Athens on March 16, 2000.

The Dutch hit the wall in 3:09.18 for the silver, also inside the old world record, but their women’s 4x200 freestyle relay ensured the team would end the night on a golden note as no less than four quartets finished inside the old world mark.

Inge Dekker, Femke Heemskerk, Marleen Veldhuis and Ranomi Kromowidjojo clocked 7:38.90 to annihilate the 7:46.30 mark set by Russia at the world short-course championships in Moscow on April 3, 2002.

Kenrick Monk and Kirk Palmer celebrated an Australian one-two in the opening final of the championships in the men’s 200 freestyle. Monk touched first by 0.04sec in 1:43.46 to Palmer’s 1:43.50, both more than two seconds outside fellow Australian Ian Thorpe’s world mark.

Mary Descenza brought the US their first gold medal of the five-day championships, piling on a powerful finish to win the women’s 200 butterfly in 2:04.27 and break the oldest American record, the 2:05.65 posted by Mary T. Meagher in Gainesville, Florida, on Jan 2, 1981.—Reuters