Serrano, Krawzow bring down world records

An impressive nine swimming world records were broken on the first day of action at the Internationale Deutsche Meinschaft (IDM) in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday (9 June).

Headline performances came from Colombian world champion Carlos Serrano and Elena Krawzow, swimming to a new world best in her home country.

The competition is being streamed live at the IPC Swimming’s website.

Results are available at the IDM website.

World champion Krawzow continued her successful run in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB13.

Her time of 1:16.23 puts her in pole position to improve on her silver medal from the London 2012 Paralympic Games in the event.

It also follows on from her gold medal triumph at the 2016 IPC Swimming European Open Championships in May.

Serrano has already been in record-breaking form this year, bringing down the men’s 100m breaststroke SB7 time at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Test Event in April.

In Berlin he shaved another 0.06 seconds off, finishing in 1:14.68. He will make his Paralympic debut in Rio de Janeiro this September.

Seven other world records were set in non-Paralympic events.

France’s double Paralympian Elodie Lorandi was recovering from illness at the European Open, but seemed to be back to her best in Berlin. She brought down the women’s 200m freestyle S10 time twice, touching in at 2:11.17 in the final to improve on her heat swim by more than one second.

Germany’s Daniela Schulte, the reigning Paralympic champion in the women’s 400m freestyle S11, showed her prowess over the longer distance once again. Her new world record of 6:06.35 in the 400m individual medley SM11 improved on her own mark by more than five seconds.

Great Britain’s Abby Kane added another to the count in the women’s 200m backstroke S13, with a time of 2:31.34.

New Zealand's Nikita Howarth (1:18.65) went out fast in the women’s 100m butterfly S7 to round-off the women’s world records.

Australia’s Timothy Hodge, 15, showed why he has been selected to make his Paralympic debut this year with a 5:03.05 in the men’s 400m individual medley SM9.

Brazil’s Italo Gomes Pereira and Germany’s Andre Lehman both set new marks in the 200m backstroke.

Pereira enters the record books with a 2:39.32 in the men’s S7, whilst Lehman registered a 2:32.32 in the S14 classification.

All records are subject to ratification by IPC Swimming.