THE WOODLANDS, Texas, November 14. THREE Masters swimmers continued their spectacular year in the pool, each setting a Masters short course world record at the November Classic meet last weekend.
Carolyn Boak broke several long course world records at the U.S. Masters nationals last July and was inducted into the International Masters Hall of Fame this year. Not one to rest on her laurels, she swam a 3:15.63 in the 200 butterfly in Texas, breaking the world record of 3:17.36 set in 2003 by Japan's Yoshiko Osaki in the 65-69 age group. Boak owns two other short course world records in this age group in the 200 and 400 freestyles.
David Guthrie continues to show his mastery in the breaststrokes, swimming a 2:26.52 in the 200 breaststroke to wipe out his own record of 2:28.59 from 2010 in the 50-54 age group. Guthrie owns all the breaststroke world records in short course and two of the three in long course in the 50-54 age group. Guthrie just missed out on breaking his records in the 50 and 100 breaststrokes, posting times of 30.99 and 1:07.71 that came within two tenths and nine tenths of the records, respectively.
Tom Barton also got in on the action, swimming a 29.01 in the 50 backstroke to dip under Philip Djang's world mark of 29.07 in the 55-59 age group. With that swim, Barton now claims all the short course world backstroke records in that age group. He also owns all three backstroke world records in the long course list.