East German women star in swimming

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 23

East German women star in swimming

NZPA Moscow The East German women’s swimming team, which produced 11 out of 13 of the women’s gold medallists at the 1976 Olympics at Montreal, made a tremendous impression on the first day of competition at the 1980 Games. They successfully defended their four by 100 metres medley relay championship in a new world record time, and then Barbara Krause the 1978 world champion, set a new world mark in her heat of the women’s 100 metres. The first swimming medal of the games, went, inevitably perhaps, to the host

naton when Ukranian student Sergei Fesenko won the final of the men’s 200 metres butterfly. This was the first Olympic gold medal for any Russian swimmer, and the achievement was received with rapturous applause in the plush Qlympisky stadium. His winning time of 1:59.76 was almost half a second outside the world and Olympic record set In Montreal by Mike Bruner, of the United States. Bruner a faster time this year than Fesenko’s winning time, but the 21-year-old Ukranian said after the race that he did not think his medal was

devalued because of Bruner’s > enforced absence. In the medley relay the East German girls led from start to finish, and their time of 4:06.07 sliced 1.28 seconds from the 1976 mark. Krause won her heat of the 100 m freestyle in 54.98 s to lop half a second from her own world mark. It was comfortably inside the Olympic mark set by her compatriot, Kornelia Ender, in 1976. Ender’s record was also beaten by teammate Karen Metschuck, the sec-ond-fastest qualifier in 55.445. Metschuck was the “anchor-man’ in the gold medal relay team.