Posted at 7:02 a.m., Saturday, July 21, 2007
Pan Am Games: Brazilian tops Spitz's mark with 6 golds
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Thiago Pereira of Brazil broke the 40-year-old record of American great Mark Spitz with six swimming gold medals in one Pan American Games.Today, Pareira won the men's 200-meter breaststroke to earn his sixth gold. He finished the race in 2 minutes, 13.51 seconds, beating teammate Henrique Barbosa (2:13.83) and Scott Spann (2.13.98) of Austin, Texas at the packed Maria Lank aquatic complex.
Spitz won five golds at the 1967 Pan Ams in Winnipeg. He was 17 at the time; Pereira is 21.
Spitz still holds the record of seven Olympic golds won at the 1972 Munich Games.
On Friday, Pereira won the 200 medley and took gold in the 400 freestyle relay even though he didn't swim in the final. By swimming a leg in the qualifying race, he was entitled to a gold medal when the Brazilian team won the final.
Earlier in the Pan Ams, he won the 200 backstroke, the 400 individual medley and the 800 freestyle relay. He has set four Pan Am Games records in the pool here.
Pereira, ranked fourth in the world in the 200 medley, has a chance to win two more medals in Rio. He won a silver and a bronze at the 2003 Pan Ams in Santo Domingo.
"I won't say that it's mission accomplished until after I'm done with Sunday's final," Pereira said. "I'm beginning to feel tired from all the swimming this week, but I need to keep my focus."
In 1967, Spitz won the 100 and 200 butterfly and three relays: the 400 free, 400 medley and 800 free.
