Heyns Betters World Records at Pan Pacifics

Sydney, Australia -- Former University of Nebraska All-American Penny Heyns broke her seventh world record in five weeks, lowering her own mark in the 200-meter breaststroke finals at the Pan Pacific Championships on Friday. Heyns gold medal performance of 2:23.64 eclipses the previous world best she set in the preliminaries, 2:24.41.

In the preliminaries of the 100-meter breaststroke on Monday, Heyns touched the wall in a time of 1:06.52, besting her own previous world best of 1:06.95. Swimming in the finals on the following day, she touched the wall first in a time of 1:07.08.

Heyns broke four world records last month at the Janet Evans Invitational in Los Angeles, Calif. During the five-week span, she has lowered the 100-meter record three times and the 200-meter mark four times.

Heyns competed for Nebraska from 1993 through 1996. During her senior campaign she won the NCAA title in the 100-yard breaststroke, established an NCAA and U.S. Open record in the 200-yard breaststroke en route to being named the Big Eight Female Athlete of the Year. Competing at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Heyns won double gold in the 100- and 200-meter breaststrokes.

Tomorrow morning Heyns is slated to compete in a 50-meter breaststroke time trial, attempting to set another world record. She established the current world mark of 30.95 at last year's Goodwill Games in New York.

Complete results available at:
http://www.panpacific.telstra.com.au/index.cfm