Russia Finishes 1st at Swimming Championships

Athletes from Russia maintained their lead and finished first in the gold medal rankings as the 2009 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming World Championships 25m came to a close in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Following Russia’s 33 gold medals were Australia (23), USA (20), Brazil (20), Great Britain (18), Germany (11), Spain (8), Japan (6) and New Zealand (6). The final day of the Championships on 5 December continued to see a long string of World records broken by athletes from all around the world.

In the Men’s 100m Freestyle (S10), host country’s Esteves Andre Brasil set a new World record with his time of 48.70s. Following Brasil were Canada’s Benoit Huot and Brazil’s Phelipe Andres Melo Rodrigues respectively. In the Women’s 100m Freestyle (S10), USA’s Susan Beth Scott also set a World record with her time of 1:02.48. Scott was followed by Spain’s Esther Morales Fernandez by just 0.18s and New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe by 0.86s.

A World record was also set in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke (SB6) by Great Britain’s Elizabeth Johnson with her time of 1:38.82. Johnson was followed by Australia’s Katrina Porter and Norway’s Marianne Maeland, both finishing just under 15 seconds later. The men also saw a World record in the 100m Breaststroke (SB7) from Australia’s Blake John Cochrane. Coming in second and third were Great Britain pair Sascha Kindred and Thomas Young respectively.

In the Men’s 200m Individual Medley (SM8), a World record was set by Peter Alan Stuart Leek (AUS) with his time of 2:20.38. Coming in second and third were Great Britain’s Samuel Hynd and Spain’s Alejandro Sanchez Palomero respectively. For the Women’s 200m Individual Medley (SM8), Russia’s Olesya Vladykina set a World record with her time of 2:35.83. Vladykina was followed by USA’s Jessica Long and Norway’s Mariann Vestbestad.

The World Championships took place from 29 November – 5 December 2009 in Rio de Janeiro with over 260 athletes from 31 different countries participating in the IPC’s first Short Course World Championships in Swimming. The event was organized by the RIO2009 Organizing Committee and sanctioned by the Brazilian National Paralympic Committee and the IPC. The mascot for Rio 2009 was Octo, the swimming octopus.

Many of the athletes in Rio de Janeiro had their second big competition in less than a month - the first being the 2009 IPC Swimming European Championships in Reykjavik, Iceland, from 18-24 October. A total of 650 athletes and staff from 37 participating countries came to the Nordic country for its first large-scale competition. As the competition finished, Great Britain topped the medal standings, followed by Ukraine, Spain, Russia, Germany, Poland, France, Greece and the Netherlands (tie), and Hungary respectively.