Three world records, nine swimmers and eight Speedo LZR Racer swimsuits. The short-course world championships started off with a bang Wednesday. The decision by swimming's world governing body, FINA, not to ban the new high-tech Speedo suits resulted in another heap of records in the pool. Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe started things off by setting the world record in the 400-meter individual medley. The United States team of Ryan Lochte, Bryan Lundquist, Nathan Adrian and Doug Van Wie matched the feat in the men's 400m freestyle relay. Then the Dutch team of Inge Dekker, Fernke Heemskerk, Marleen Veldhuis and Ranomi Kromowidjojo concluded the excitement inside the M.E.N. Arena by establishing a new world mark in the women's 800m freestyle relay. The records were set in the final three races of the night and eight of the nine swimmers involved wore the new Speedo suit. Only Van Wie, who used a TYR brand suit, did not wear an LZR. The LZR has now been worn for 21 of the 22 world records set since it was introduced in February. In the medley, Coventry timed 4 minutes, 26.52 seconds. Yana Klochkova of Ukraine set the previous world mark of 4:27.83 in 2002. The US men's record in the 400m relay was set with a time of 3:08.44. Sweden set the previous mark of 3:09.57 in 2000. The Netherlands finished second in 3:09.18 and Sweden was third in 3:10.04. The Dutch women finished in 7:38.90 in the 800m free relay. China had set the previous mark of 7:46.30 at the 2002 short-course worlds in Moscow. The next three finishers - Britain, Australia and the United States - were also ahead of the old mark. Britain clocked 7:38.96, Australia 7:39.01 and the US 7:45.58. The men's 200m freestyle final was also held Wednesday and it turned into a duel in lanes seven and eight between Australian swimmers Kenrick Monk and Kirk Palmer. Palmer led at 100 meters but Monk won in 1:43.46, beating his teammate by 0.04 seconds for his first individual world title. Also, Mary Descenza set a championship record by swimming 2:04.27 to win the women's 200m butterfly final. Jessica Schipper's previous mark of 2:05.11 was set at the last short-course worlds, in Shanghai in 2006. __
