Photo Courtesy: acintosh)
MONTREAL, Canada, August 10. THREE must be Noriko Inada’s favorite number, as the three-time Japanese Olympian broke her third world record to wrap up the FINA Masters world championships.
Inada, who competed for Japan in the 1992, 2000 and 2004 Olympics and nearly made the 2012 team, posted a blazing 28.85 in the 50 backstroke in Montreal to break her own world record of 29.45 in the 35-39 age group that she swam less than a month ago. Noriko, 36 years old and representing Phoenix Swim Club, also owns the 30-34 world record with a 28.57 from 2012.
Inada also set records in the 50 fly and 100 back in Montreal. Though FINA doesn’t offer awards for swimmer of the meet at the Masters world championships as they do at the “elite” world championships, Inada would be in the running for the female award. Nicolas Granger’s two world records in the 400 IM and 200 free in the same day might be unparalleled on the men’s side.
Canada’s Cindy Mabee, swimming for Victoria Masters Swim Club, also celebrated a world record in the 50 back with a 31.35 in the 45-49 age group.
Perennial world record breaker and Swimming World Magazine World Masters Swimmer of the Year Laura Val had one more chance to set a world mark in Montreal, swimming in the 400 free in the 60-64 age group. Chasing her world record of 4:59.82, the 63-year-old from Tamalapais Masters fell just a bit short with an agonizing 4:59.87.