LA-ROCHE-SUR-YON, 22 November 2004 — France’s Olympic 400 meters champion Laure Manaudou set a new world shortcourse record for the women’s 1,500 meters here Saturday in a time of 15min 42.39sec.
Manaudou, one of the biggest swimming talents France has produced in years, swam alone at the meet which featured mainly junior races but that did not put the 18-year-old off as she beat the record held by Petra Schneider by almost a minute.
Schneider, from East Germany, had set a record of 15:43.30 on Jan. 10, 1982 in Gainesville in the United States.
In the process Manaudou also set a new France record for the discipline, which she had already done unofficially in a time of 16:06.59 last week although that time was not validated because she had raced against a field of male swimmers.Manaudou, who in Athens also picked up a silver (800m) and bronze medal (100m backstroke), said: “I’m a bit surprised by the time, mostly because I didn’t really go out with the record in mind.
“I didn’t even know how well I was doing during the race, but at least it shows I can swim (the distance) fast — even though I’ve had a mediocre week in training.”
