AFP, Los Angeles :
Simone Manuel anchored the US women to a 4x100m medley relay shortcourse world record on Friday in the Duel in the Pool swimming showdown with Europe in Indianapolis.
Manuel hit the water even with the European All-Star squad and pulled away down the stretch, the United States’ winning time of 3min 45.20sec eclipsing the previous world record of 3:45.56 set by a US team four years ago.
Courtney Bartholomew, Katie Meili, and Kelsi Worrell swam the first three legs for the United States, who relegated a strong European quartet of Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, Russian Yuliya Efimova, Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen and the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo to second in 3:45.46.
The opening night of the meeting saw US swimmers win nine of 14 events.
Manuel came from behind at the 50-meter mark to win the women’s 100m free in an American shortcourse record of 51.69, surpassing Natalie Coughlin’s six-year-old mark.
The US team of Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes, Tom Shields and Nathan Adrian won the men’s 4x100m medley relay in an American record of 3:20.91.
Olympic gold medallist Adrian won the men’s 100m free in 46.57, with team-mate Josh Schneider second.
Hosszu led Europe with two victories, winning the women’s 400m individual medley in 4:21.21 and the women’s 200m back in 1:59.75.
