WOMEN'S 100 METRES BREASTSTROKE 23/8/84
1. TRACKING SHOT AND TOP VIEW Race in progress, second length (2 shots) 0.31
2. SV Winner Sylvia Gerasch (East Germany) in water 0.36
WOMEN'S 100-METRES BUTTERFLY 23/8/84
3. TOP VIEWS Race in progress, second length (4 shots) 1.07
4. SV Winner Tatyana Kirnikova. (USSR) in water and congratulated 1.10
MEN'S 4x100 METRES FREESTYLE 23/8/84
5. TOP VIEWS AND SVs Finish of race, last half length (3 shots) 1.33
6. SV Winning team last swimmer Alexei Markovski (USSR) in water 1.35
MEN'S 400-METRE FREESTYLE 23/8/84
7. SV Last length of race with Vladimir Salnikov winning (2 shots) 2.00
WOMEN'S 400x100-METRES MEDLEY 24/8/84
8. CU and GV Last 1.5 lengths of race, won by East Germany. CU Birgit Meinecke in water (5 shots) 2.45
InitialsBB/PM

SPORT: SWIMMING
Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: MOSCOW, USSR

The Soviet Union and East Germany dominated the swimming events at the 'Friendship-84' Games in Moscow. East German Sylvia Gerasch smashed the women's 100-metres breaststroke world record on August 23. Her winning time was one minute 8.29 seconds, clipping 0.22 of a second off the previous mark set by her compatriot Ute Geweniger in Rome last year. It was one of the fastest breaststroke spring races ever, with the first three finishers all beating the Los Angeles Olympic gold medal time set by Petra van Staveren from the Netherlands in 1.09.88. Geweniger finished second in 1.08.59. A new European record was set in the women's 100 metres butterfly by Tatyana Kirnikova of the Soviet Union. She completed the race in 59.4 seconds, smashing one of the longest standing European records, 59.46, set by Andrea Pollack of East Germany in 1978. The time set by Kirnikova would have given her a silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics behind world record holder Mary Meagher of the United States. In the men's 4x100-metres freestyle relay, the Soviet team improved the European record by more than half a second. The new record, set by Serghei Smiryaghin, Serghei Kurbatov, Serghei Krasyuk and Alexei Markovski was 3.20.19. The East Germans came second with a time of 3.22.92 and Czechoslovakia came third in 3.27.31. The men's 400-metre free-style was won by Vladimir Salnikov of the Soviet Union, a triple Olympic gold medallist at the 1980 Moscow Games. He failed to improve his world record of 3.48.32 but won easily in 3 minutes 49.27 seconds, nearly two seconds faster than the Olympic gold medal winning time set in Los Angeles by George Dicarlo of the United States. The women's 4x100-metre medley was the concluding event on August 24. The East German girls set a world record with a time of four minutes 3.69 seconds. The team of Ina Kleber, Sylvia Gerasch, Ines Geissler and Birgit Meineke beat the previous mark of 4.05.79, also set by East Germany in Rome in August 1983. In her leg of the relay, Kleber set a world 100-metres backstroke record with a time of one minute 0.59 seconds, beating the previous best of 1.00.86 set by East German Rica Reinisch at the Moscow Olympics.

Source: TSS