World record
Smit swims fastest 400 IM ever
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Smit set a world record in the 400-meter individual medley last Friday at the Canada Cup in Toronto, Canada.
A Stanford University junior, Smit swam 4 minutes, 25.87 seconds to break the record held by Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe (4:26.52). Coventry, the silver medalist in the 400 IM at the Beijing Olympics, set the record in April.
"I was real excited on the last leg, because I could hear my teammates going crazy and the crowd screaming," Smit said in a release on Stanford's Web site. "I knew I had to come home hard on the 100 free."
The record was in a short course, which is 25 meters, as opposed to 50 meters in a long course like the Olympics. Times are generally slightly faster in a short course.
Smit was well ahead of the second-place finisher, Stanford teammate Liz Smith, who clocked in at 4:34.62.
Following her world record, Smit set an American record the next day in the 200 IM. She swam 2:06.49 to break a 15-year-old American record set by Alison Wagner in 1993. Wagner swam 2:07.79 in Mallorca, Spain, a record that's held up ever since.
Smit's breakdown in the 200 IM went as follows: butterfly (28.20), backstroke (31.54), breaststroke (36.99) and freestyle (29.76).
Smit narrowly missed qualifying for the 400 IM in the Olympic Trials in June. Smit finished third behind Katie Hoff and Elizabeth Beisel. Hoff set the long course world record in that meet, which was subsequently broken by Australian Stephanie Rice in the Olympic finals (4:29.45).
Smit's time Friday unofficially converts to a 4:29.10 in a long course, according to a conversion tool on swimmingworldmagazine.com. But the only way to break a long course record is in a long course.
Smit took only a short break after the Olympics in August before getting back into the pool for Stanford. The Cardinals began their season Oct. 3 with a win against San Jose State. Following the Canada Cup the Cardinals have over a month off from competition until returning to action against Pacific, Jan. 10.
Stanford won the Canada Cup, a meet with 56 teams, by totaling 1,569 points. Second-place UBC Dolphins totaled 825. Stanford is the second-ranked NCAA team in the latest College Swim Coaches Association of America poll.
In the week of Nov. 2-9 Smit was named Collegiate Swimmer of the Week for NCAA Division I women.
joew@northshoresun.com
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