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| Marieke Gueher (AUS) was also rewarded for her regularity (she attended all the seven meets of the series) and got the first place with 199 points. Before Berlin, she was closely followed by Therese Alshammar (SWE), who needed to be the best performer with a World Record in this last meet to beat Guehrer. In the 50m butterfly, event in which Alshammar had set a new World Record (25.31) in Stockholm, it was the Australian who established a new WR in 24.99 (best women’s performance in Berlin), ending with Alshammar’s hopes for the overall victory (she finished second, with 137 points). The third placed swimmer of the overall classification was South African Katheryn Meaklim, with 78 points. A total of 12 World Records were established in this edition of the World Cup, the best outcome since the 2001/2002 edition – where a maximum number of 22 WR were set. In the last five editions, the distribution of World Records was as follows: 2002/2003 – 7 WR; 2003/2004 – 4 WR; 2004/2005 – 5 WR; 2005/2006 – 2 WR; 2007 – 5 WR. Berlin closed the circuit In the women’s 50m butterfly, Guehrer appeared really motivated to be the first of the overall ranking, and finished her brilliant participation in the 2008 World Cup with a new World Record in the event – 24.99, faster than the previous world best mark set by Alshammar in Stockholm (25.31). World Cup records were also set in this last meet of the circuit: in the women’s 400m free, Coralie Balmy (FRA) clocked the second best time ever in the event, touching first in 3:56.24 – Lindsay Benko (USA) was the former owner of this World Cup record (3:59.53) since 2003, while Laure Manaudou, also from France, has set the World Record in 3:56.09 in December 2006; finally, Singaporean star Li Tao in the women’s 100m butterfly clocked 56.28 - the previous best mark of the competition was held by Natalie Coughlin (USA), who swam 56.34 in 2002, in New York. |
