Bernard smashes his third world record

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands: Alain Bernard shattered his third world record in as many days on Sunday to achieve a rare sprint double when he broke the 50m freestyle mark at the European swimming championships.

Bernard forged through his 50 freestyle semifinal in 21.50 seconds to better the 21.56 world mark set by Australia's Eamon Sullivan in Sydney on Feb 17 this year.

The 24-year-old Frenchman snatched the 100 freestyle world record from Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband at the ailing Dutchman's home pool on Friday, clocking 47.60 in the semifinals to beat the 47.84 mark Van den Hoogenband set at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Bernard lowered that to 47.50 in Saturday's final, winning the 100 title by almost a full second.

He is the first man to break the 50 and 100 freestyle world records at the same meeting since American Matt Biondi performed the then unprecedented feat in Orlando in June 1986 ahead of the World Championships.

Bernard, sporting the muscular physique of a body-builder, produced the explosive power to match it in the water. Job done, he sat on his lane rope, smilingly soaking up the applause of the cheering crowd.

Marleen Veldhuis, the new women's 100 freestyle champion, threatened to make it a 50 freestyle world record double, falling just 0.13 seconds short of Dutch compatriot Inge de Bruijn's 24.13 world mark in the semifinals.

Golden doubles

Anastasia Zueva and Markus Rogan both completed backstroke title doubles, Zueva raising Russia's gold medal tally to 11 after Yulia Pakhalina had won the women's 3m springboard diving and Evgeny Koratyshkin the men's 100 butterfly.

Seventeen-year-old Zueva added the women's 50 backstroke gold to the 100 titles she took from France's Laure Manaudou. Austria's 2004 champion Rogan, the men's 100 backstroke winner, regained the 200 title in 1:55.85, well clear of defending champion Arkady Vyachanin of Russia (1:57.04).

Zueva clocked 28.05 to take the European 50 backstroke record from Spain's ex-Russian Nina Zhivanevska and beat her former compatriot by just 0.06 seconds.

Korotyshkin, the slowest final qualifier, won the 100 butterfly in 51.89, equaling the championship record.

Nineteen-year-old Slovenian Sara Isakovic upstaged Olympic champion Camelia Potec, pipping the Romanian by just 0.02 seconds to win the women's 200 freestyle in 1:57.45.

Isakovic prevailed in the absence of Manaudou, the world champion and world record holder, who left the championships early to catch up with her Olympic training, and Italian ex-world record holder Federica Pellegrini, who was disqualified for a false start in the heats.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/25/2008 page24)