After shattering the world 1500m l/c record in the summer, and adding the 800m (en route) and 1500m world s/c marks last Friday at a meet in Essen, Kate Ziegler, of The Fish and the US, lowered the 32-lap standard again today, from 8:09.68 to 8:08.00.

The official splits from Essen:

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)

Ziegler, coached by Ray Benecki, also defeated world l/c championship silver medallist Annika Lurz over 200m, 1:57.04 to 1:57.42, though we know that Lurz is capable of quicker long-course.

The first woman under 8:10 last Friday, as first reported by German news media reporting live from Essen, Ziegler is the fifth and sixth holder of the world 800 s/c record since FINA recognised s/c records in 1991, though others held the world best time before. Here's the run of progress:

9:31.6 Pamela Cruse USA Bremen 1.3.68
9:13.9 Deborah Meyer USA Vancouver 5.5.68
8:57.9 Shane Gould AUS 1971
8:49.22 Heather Greenwood USA Bremen 1.3.74
8:46.22 Heather Greenwood USA Paris 16.2.75
8:44.71 Shannon Smith CAN Brantford 8.2.76
8:35.99 Barbara Krause GDR Bremen 5.3.76
8:28.99 Kim Linehan USA Austin 15.4.78
8:18.77 Cynthia Woodhead USA Paris 8.2.80
8:17.32 Petra Schneider GDR Gainesville 8.1.82
8:15.34 Astrid Strauss GDR Bonn 7.2.87
Fina recognised short-course world records
8:15.15 Chen Hua CHN Shanghai 2.12.01
8:14.35 Sachiko Yamada JPN Tokyo 2.4.02
8:13.35 Sachiko Yamada JPN Nishinomiya 24.1.04
8:11.25 Laure Manaudou FRA Trieste 9.12.05
8:09.68 Kate Ziegler USA 12.10.07
8:08.00 Kate Ziegler USA 14.10.07