Rigamonti wins silver in Melbourne
Swiss swimmer Flavia Rigamonti has won a silver medal in the 1,500-metre freestyle at the world championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Rigamonti smashed the previous European record by almost five seconds, with a time of 15 minutes 55.38 seconds, finishing just behind the American Kate Ziegler who won gold. Ai Shibata from Japan took bronze.
The 25-year-old Swiss broke her personal best by almost nine seconds pushing Ziegler, the current queen of female distance, extremely hard over the 30-lap race. The American was on world record course until 1,200 metres, when she seemed to tire and allowed Rigamonti to close the gap.
“I am so happy, just delighted,” Rigamonti told journalists. “I swam in lane one on the outside and had no idea what was going on during the race. I didn’t know either that I was in second place.”
She said she was so surprised by the time after the race that she “couldn’t really think straight”.
After 2001 and 2005, this is Rigamonti’s third silver medal in the 1,500-metre event. And like two years ago in Montreal, she again lost out to the 19-year-old American, who was less than a second off Janet Evans’ 1988 record of 15:52.10.
The swimmer from Italian-speaking Switzerland is now the third-fastest female swimmer over this distance. She also established the fifth fastest ever time for this event.
Record night
On Tuesday night in Melbourne four world records were also set at the championships – three by American superstars Michael Phelps, Nathalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol, the other by lesser-known Italian Federica Pellegrini.
Phelps defeated Pieter Van Den Hoogenband in their first duel in the pool since the 2004 Olympics, becoming the first man in history to go under 1 minute, 44 seconds in the 200-metre freestyle.
Phelps had barely climbed out of the pool before teammate Coughlin jumped in and lowered her own world mark in winning the women’s 100 backstroke.
Then Peirsol made it three out of three for the Americans with a world-record win in the men’s 100-metre backstroke, his third straight world title.
Federica Pellegrini of Italy got in on the act too, shaving 0.17 seconds off the world record in the semifinals of the women’s 200-metre freestyle.
swissinfo with agencies
Melbourne World Championships results
1,500-metre freestyle
1. Kate Ziegler (US) 15:53.05
2. Flavia Rigamonti (Switzerland) 15:55.38
3. Ai Shibata (Japan) 15:58.55
4. Erika Villaecija (Spain) 16:05.83
5. Hayley Peirsol (US) 16:12.84
Born in Breganzona in Ticino in 1981.
Started swimming at the age of ten and won her first title at the European Junior Swimming Championships in 1997.
Won around a dozen medals in her swimming career at the 800-metre and 1,500-metre distances.
This includes gold at the European championships in Helsinki in 2000, silvers at the World Championships in Fukuoka (2001) and Montreal (2005).
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