By Oene Rusticus
PARIS, Jan. 19. UKRAINE'S World and Olympic champion, Yana Klochkova, added the world record in the short course 400 meter individual medley to her impressive list of credentials today, when she clocked 4:27.83 during the prelims of the World Cup VII meet in Paris.
Her swim erased one of the oldest — and most suspect — of the world records set by Chinese swimmers, the 4:29.00 swum by Dai Guohong at the Short Course World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on Dec. 12, 1993.
Dai, then 18, retired suddenly, late in 1994, after seven of her teammates tested positive for the same steroid at the Asian Championships in Japan.
Klochkova's time also erases the newly-minted European mark of 4:29.46, set last December 16 by Germany's Nicole Hetzer, in winning the European Short Course Championships in Antwerp.
Klochkova went after the record right from the start today, leaving a star-studded field in her wake. Romania's Beatrice Coada-Caslaru was a distant second in 4:38.38. Italy's Federica Biscia was third in 4:40.75.