All eyes were on Pasadena, California on Wednesday as 39 national and international records were broken on Day One of the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships.
The prelims session saw 18 records go down, beginning with the first heat of the first event, while another 21 were broken in finals. Adri Visser (S5-RSA) dropped 7 seconds in the women’s 200 free S5 prelims for a 3:50.87, which was good enough to take down the African record. In finals, Kayla Wheeler (S2-USA) went 5:45.67 to break the American S2 record. In the same heat Alyssa Gialamas (S5-USA) also broke an American record with her 3:12.37. A heat later Kayla Clark (S14-AUS) and Beatriz Resendiz Garcia (S14-MEX) broke the S14 Oceana and PanAm records, respectively, with 2:14.75 and 2:25.15.
In the men’s 400 free, Talisson Glock (S6-BRA) went 5:19.52 in prelims, breaking the PanAm record; he then went 5:14.72 in finals to lower it even further. Blake Adams (S13-USA) got a two-fer when he took down the American records in both the 400 free, with a 4:40.31, and the 200, with his leadoff split of 2:18.34, in prelims.
Two more records went down in finals of the men’s 400 free: Caio Oliveira (S8-BRA) went 4:39.37 for the S8 PanAm mark, while Ian Silverman’s (S10-USA) 4:03.57 broke both the PanAm and world records for the S10 classification.
In the men’s 50 fly, Roy Perkins (S5-USA) broke the American S5 record twice; he first went 34.35 in prelims, then 34.24 in finals. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Daniel Dias broke both the PanAm and world records for the 50 fly S5 with his 33.98 in finals. Also in finals, Matthew Haanappel (S6-AUS) and Matthew Levy (S7-AUS) took down the Oceana records in their respective classes with 33.81 and 31.36.
Becca Meyers (S13-USA) had a double-double showing in the women’s 100 fly: she broke both the American and PanAm S13 records in prelims going 1:06.22, then lowered both marks with her 1:05.99 in finals. Australia’s Kayla Clark (S14) was back again after the 200 free with Oceana and world records in the 100 fly S13 with her prelims swim of 1:10.25. In the same S13 class, Mariana Diaz de la Vega broke the PanAm record in prelims with 1:18.08.
Quite a few records fell in the 50 free. In prelims, Americans Kayla Wheeler (S2) and Michelle Konkoly (S9) went 1:19.06 and 29.24, respectively, to etch their names in both the American and PanAm record books. South African Adri Visser broke the African S5 record with 50.34 in prelims. In S14 Mariana Diaz de la Varga (MEX) went 31.57 for the PanAm record, while Taylor Corry (AUS)’s 28.36 was good enough for both the Oceana and world marks in S14.
In finals of the women’s 50 free, Alyssa Gialamas of USA got the American S5 record with her 44.90, and Mary Fisher of New Zealand wrapped up the S11 Oceana record with 30.96.
Two relay marks went down as well: Team USA (S11-13) broke the American and PanAm records for 4×100 free 49 point relay; they went 4:00.23. Team Canada (S14) broke both the PanAm and world records with their 3:54.42 effort in the 4×100 free 56 point relay.