ESSEN, Germany, October 14. AFTER first breaking Laure Manaudou's world record in the 800 freestyle (8:11.25) over the short course on Friday en route to her 1500 free global standard, Kate Ziegler dropped the 800 free record even further on Sunday at the Alex Athletics Jubilaums Challenge in Essen, Germany.
According to a post by SG Essen, the club hosting the event, Ziegler slashed her newly-minted world record of 8:09.68 with a time of 8:08.00.
The following is the official result report, including splits, of the record swim:
1. Kate Ziegler 1988 The Fish/USA 08:08,00 1051 WR
50m: 00:28,72 (00:28,72) 100m: 00:59,22 (00:30,50)
150m: 01:29,78 (00:30,56) 200m: 02:00,48 (00:30,70)
250m: 02:31,15 (00:30,67) 300m: 03:01,96 (00:30,81)
350m: 03:32,75 (00:30,79) 400m: 04:03,73 (00:30,98)
450m: 04:34,65 (00:30,92) 500m: 05:05,46 (00:30,81)
550m: 05:36,35 (00:30,89) 600m: 06:07,13 (00:30,78)
650m: 06:37,84 (00:30,71) 700m: 07:08,48 (00:30,64)
750m: 07:39,30 (00:30,82) 800m: 08:08,00 (00:28,70 )
Click here to view video of the swim.
Not only did Ziegler drop the 800 free watershed mark for the second time this weekend, she did so after having already emerged victorious from a head-to-head battle with Annika Lurz in the 200-meter freestyle. Ziegler clocked a time of 1:57.04, to touch out Lurz (1:57.42). That shorter distance freestyle time came close to beating Ziegler's previous best of 1:56.98 set as a relay leadoff at the 2006 Short Course World Championships.
As impressive as it is to establish a world record at any point during the year, the fact that Ziegler has embarked on a record pursuit in October is downright head-shaking. This is a time when athletes are in the middle of heavy training.
Then again, Ziegler has frequently spoken of the fact that she doesn't follow a normal taper, opting instead to follow a rest schedule. What allows Ziegler to produce these awe-inspiring performances is her ability to handle an unbelievable workload. She has a great relationship with her coach Ray Benecki and she simply has the ability to grind away no matter what point in the season.
It will be interesting to see what Ziegler does during the remainder of the short-course season, particularly in some yards events. Remember, recent years have brought records in the 500-yard and 1,000-yard freestyles and the possibility of more time-cutting is very realistic, maybe expected.
For complete coverage of Ziegler's initial world-record run two days ago as first reported by SwimmingWorldMagazine.com, click here.