SWIMMING / MEET OF CHAMPIONS : Wojdat Tops Field in Men’s 800; Cal’s Anderson Leads Women

Artur Wojdat of Poland, swimming for Mission Viejo, will be the favorite in the men’s 800-meter freestyle when the Chrysler Swim Meet of Champions begins today at 4 p.m. at Mission Viejo International Swimming Complex.

Sarah Anderson, a 1991 graduate of Cal, has the No. 1 seeding in the women’s 800 freestyle, the only other event on the first of four days of competition. Claudia Poll of Costa Rica is seeded second and Lisa Jacob of Mission Viejo is third.

“I am really excited about this meet,” said Wojdat, a three-time winner for Iowa in the NCAA Division I meet last March.

“It is growing every year and attracting better swimmers, not only from Australia and Europe, but we have a lot of the top athletes from the U.S. It is a really good checkpoint to see where we stand because our main competition is a month and a half away.”

For the U.S. national team, 40% of whom are among the 800 entrants, that main competition will be either the Pan Pacific Games Aug. 22-25 in Edmonton, Canada, or the Pan American Games Aug. 11-17 in Havana.

For Wojdat, who swims internationally for Poland, it is the European Swimming Championships Aug. 20-25 in Athens.

Olympic gold medalist Matt Biondi, the world record-holder in the 100 freestyle, and Melvin Stewart, the world record-holder in the 200 butterfly, are also among the top entrants.

Sessions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will begin with preliminaries at 10 a.m. Finals each day will start at 5 p.m.