(MENAFN- Arab Times) The women are getting it done at the world swimming championships. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden lowered her own world record in the 100-meter butterfly to win gold Monday night, and then Katinka Hosszu of Hungary erased a world mark from the hightech suit era to claim the 200 individual medley. Earlier Monday, American teenager Katie Ledecky bettered her own world record in the 1,500 freestyle preliminaries. Four world records set in the first two days of pool swimming - and all by women.
"Unbelievable," American Ryan Lochte said. "I'm glad to see world records get broken. It gets more people behind swimming so that's awesome." Sjostrom first broke the mark set by American Dana Vollmer at the 2012 London Olympics in the semifinals on Sunday. In the final, the Swede led at the turn and won by a body length, touching in 55.64 seconds. She dipped a hundredth of a second lower than her mark a day earlier while finishing 1.41 seconds ahead of Jeanette Ottesen of Denmark. "My plan was to break the world record in the semifinals because there is always more pressure in the final," Sjostrom said. "So I'm very happy that I could show myself that I could swim even with all this pressure."
Ottesen earned silver in 57.05 and Lu Ying of China took bronze in 57.48. Hosszu defended her 2013 title in the 200 IM, winning in 2 minutes, 6.12 seconds. That bettered the old mark of 2:06.15 set by American Ariana Kukors at the 2009 worlds in Rome during a time when the sport was rocked by swimmers setting a slew of world records in rubber suits that were eventually banned. Hosszu covered her mouth with her left hand and cried as she stared at the clock. Her husband and coach, Shane Tusup, wiped tears from his eyes using the neck of his black T-shirt bearing Hosszu's nick
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