Dara Torres' last-minute decision to try the 50-meter butterfly turned out better than she imagined.
Torres set an American record Friday morning, then improved that time in the evening final at the Texas Senior Circuit No. 2 meet at Texas A&M.
The 42-year-old Torres, who won three silver medals in Beijing last summer, says she's hardly worked on the butterfly since 2000. She only entered the event on Thursday because she's been fighting a bronchial infection and didn't think she had the stamina to compete in the 100 free and withdrew.
But Torres breezed to victory in the 50 fly, touching the wall in 25.72 seconds to beat her record time of 25.84 seconds from the morning preliminaries.
"I really wasn't expecting to even go that fast," she said. "Sometimes, when you don't expect to do anything, good things happen. You don't put so much pressure on yourself."
