Day 4 Swimming Heats Finish in Eindhoven

Athletes put on strong performances this morning at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium, finishing their heats which go toward the finals this evening at the 2010 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming World Championships.

In the final set of heats for the morning, USA`s Mallory Weggemann broke the World record in the Women`s 200m Individual Medley (SM7) with her time of 2:54.00. She was followed by China`s Xu Tan and Canada`s Sarah Mehain. The World record had been set by USA`s Erin Popovich at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Popovich finished first in the second heat with 3:01.88, and was followed by compatriot Cortney Jordan and Russia`s Oxana Guseva.

In the first heat of the Women`s 200m Individual Medley (SM6), Verena Schott from Germany finished first with 3:18.66. Following Schott were Great Britain`s Elizabeth Johnson and Spain`s Julia Castello Farre. The second heat had Great Britain`s Natalie Jones in first with 3:20.81, followed by Miranda Uhl (USA) and Anastasia Diodorova (RUS).

For the first heat of the Men`s 200m Individual Medley (SM7), Croatia`s Mihovil Spanja finished first with 2:41.88, followed by Jay Dohnt (AUS) and Tobias Pollap (GER). For the second heat, Australia`s Matthew Levy finished first with 2:41.33, followed by USA`s Rudy Garcia-Tolson and China`s Huaqiang Yang.

Finals will take place tonight starting at 17:00 in the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium.

Taking place from 15-21 August, a total of 649 athletes from 53 different countries are participating at the 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Competing inside the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium for the gold, silver and bronze medal in their respective event, the number of participating athletes and countries is one of the largest of any previous Swimming World Championships.