CANET, France – Costa Rica’s Claudia Poll stole the show from Russian Denis Pankratov at the Canet International on Sunday.
Poll, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the 200m freestyle recorded the fastest times in the world this year en route to 2 victories. In the 200m freestyle, she swam an extremely fast 1:58.18 and in the 400m freestyle, she clocked an impressive 4:10.56.
1996 Double Olympic gold medalist Denis Pankratov fell short of his world record in the 200m butterfly on Saturday. The Russian announced before the meeting, his final competiton before the European Championships in Seville in August, that he was going to break his own world record of 1:55.22. Unfortunely he “only” swam a 1:57.34. Pankratov was under world record pace through 150m but lost pace over the last 50m.
Pankratov decided not to take part in Sunday’s 100m butterfly in order to return to Russia to prepare for the European Championships.