Daniel Zaitsev in the 100 meter individual freestyle heats overtook Martti Aljandi's Estonian record, and went on to win both that event and the 50-meter backstroke.

Zaitsev said after Thursday's showing that he "Is satisfied with today. Already in the morning I held the pedal to the metal, and the record fell down from there."

"I thought that the evening would see a better time so I entered the 50 meter backstroke, but I lacked a bit of strength in the 100 m freestyle [final," he went on.

Nevertheless his 52.98 in the final in Kohtla-Järve, compared with the record-setting time of 52.82 in the morning heat, was enough to win the 100 meter freestyle, to add to the gold taken in the backstroke.

Maria Romanjuk also performed well in the women's 100 meter freestyle, beating even Eneli Jefimova (who swims in the junior category) with a time of 1.01.09.

Jefimova's 1.01.83 was still a new junior record in the 100 meter freestyle, however.

Another record: Kregor Zirk, with 7.49.85 in the tough 800 meter freestyle event, a little over five seconds down on the three-year-old previous record, which he had set himself in fact.

"My goal was to swim under 7.50, and I did so almost by a couple of hundredths of a second. It was tough, but that was also to be expected for 800 meters. I'm glad I was able to swim so well," Zirk said of his performance.

Later on, Maari Randväli set a record in her age category in the 100 meter freestyle, overtaking Ksenia Bazanova's 56.39 from that morning.

Mirtel Merimaa put in a new Estonian youth record in the 50-meter backstroke (28.92) while Ilja Hrjastsjov set the boys' top time in the 100 meters individual freestyle (58.45).

The domestic short course championships final day is today, Friday; the heats having already taken place, with the finals due from 4 p.m. Estonian time.

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