Rebecca Adlington, of Britain, raced inside world-record pace until the last 50m of 800m freestyle at the world short-course championships here in Manchester, missed the American's mark by 0.25sec but took an axe to the European and Commonwealth records with a fabulous 8:08.25 victory.
The Nottingham distance ace, coached by Bill Furniss, wiped 3sec off the European record held by Olympic silver medal winner Laure Manaudou, of France, and clobbered the Commonwealth standard that had stood to Kylie Palmer (AUS) at 8:14.11 since last August. Palmer raced a best time of 8:12.32 for silver, with Erika Villaecija (ESP) took bronze in 8:13.98.
Adlington, who last week demoloshed the British long-course 200m, 400m abd 800m standards, set about her task with vigour from the blocks, taking the lead at 100m and never relinquishing it. At 600m she was 0.63sec inside Ziegler's pace, with 100m to go, 0.48sec inside, with 50m, 0.69sec inside, but then could not match the American's homecoming sprint. After the race she said: 'I hadn't a clue how fast i was going.'Adlington's splits: 59.62; 2:01.47; 3:02.79; 4:04.19; 5:05.24; 6:06.50; 7:08.00; 8:08.25.
The new top 10:
Thwarted in the 800m, Australia got their revenge in the last race of the night, with a championship record victory of 6:55.65 in the 4x200m freestyle, ahead of Britain, in a European record of 6:56.56. The bronze went to Italy, in 6:58.39, 0.69sec inside the time at which they had held the continental standard. Last in, Kenrick Monk (AUS) had a half body lead, which Ross Davenport (GBR) whittled down to nothing by 50m to go. Monk had a great last turn and pulled away a touch, the splits showing that the difference between the men on splits was just 0.04sec. A fabulous race.
Here's how it panned out:
That last split is the fastest ever, inside Monk's 1:42.55, with Ian Thorpe now third in 1:42.67.