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Taking aim Australia's O'Neill hungry to break butterfly records
Posted: Tuesday August 17, 1999 11:32 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia's Susie O'Neill will bid to break Mary T. Meagher's 18-year-old butterfly world records next week without the aid of a controversial full-length swim suit. O'Neill's coach, Scott Volkers, decided O'Neill will not use the latest technology in the Pan Pacific Championships, which start Sunday. Meagher, now under her married name of Mary Plant, has the two most enduring swim records, and both will be under threat at the PanPacs. Meagher's 100-meter butterfly record, which was approached by American Jenny Thompson last week at the U.S. championships, is 18 years old as of last Friday, while the 200-meter mark fell 18 years ago Monday. Australian national coach Don Talbot warned that any swimmers who set records in the new suits, which he says are yet to win clearance from swimming's governing body, FINA, risks losing their results if the suits are found to aid buoyancy. But the suits' makers, Speedo Australia, said today that Talbot is wrong and that FINA had cleared the style in the past week. "[Talbot] knows that FINA has revisited this issue and said it has no problem with the aqua blade suit made by Speedo," the company's marketing manager, Tim Lees, said. "Swimmers have already used neck to knee suits and what everyone seems to be getting into a song and dance about is that it's gone from the knee to the ankle, and that doesn't seem worth the fuss." Volkers, meanwhile, said O'Neill tested the new suits, but hers did not fit properly. He also said O'Neill does not want to have the record questioned if she goes under Meagher's mark at the PanPacs. "She's indicated to me that she'll wear her normal aqua blade suit," Volkers said. "It may be a bit longer in the leg, but it won't go over her knees." O'Neill will retire after next year's Sydney Olympics and believes that the PanPacs, Olympic trials and Olympics are her only three chances of toppling Meagher's records. Australian world champion Michael Klim created a stir when he used the swim suit at the recent national championships, while two English swimmers used a similar suit at the European Championships. Talbot said Klim, O'Neill and world 400-meter champion Ian Thorpe indicated they would wear the suits at the PanPacs, but a spokesman from Australian Swimming said Thorpe was unlikely to try it. Meagher set her records at Brown Deer, Wis., in 1981.
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