Klochkova fails to qualify

Four-time Olympic champion Yana Klochkova failed to qualify yesterday for the final of the women's 400m individual medley on the opening day of the European swimming championships.

The 25-year-old Ukrainian, who won the 200m and 400m individual medley at both the Sydney and Athens Olympics, finished her heat in 4 minutes, 50.36 seconds -- 17 seconds slower than her own European record and 12th overall.

Klochkova a break from training after Athens and is working her way back to full fitness for the Beijing Olympics.

Yana Martynova of Russia qualified fastest for the evening final with a time of 4:40.47. Alessia Filippi of Italy was second in 4:42.80 and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary was third in 4:42.86 at the National Swimming Center, where many top swimmers are treating the meet as a preparation for the Beijing Olympics.

Pawel Korzeniowski qualified fastest for the final of the men's 400m freestyle final with 3:47.70, more than a second faster than defending champion Yury Prilukov of Russia. Dragos Coman of Romania was third fastest in 3:49.02.

In the women's 50m butterfly heats, Inge Dekker led a 1-2-3 finish for the Netherlands with her time of 25.89. She was followed by Chantal Groot in 26.39 and Hinkelien Schreuder in 26.59.

World holder Therese Alshammar was fourth while her Swedish countrywoman and defending champion Anna-Karin Kammerling did not race.

Aristeidis Grigoriadis of Greece qualified fastest for the semi-finals of the men's 100m backstroke in 54.81, ahead of Guy Barnea of Israel and Liam Tancock of Britain. Russian defending champion Arkady Vyatchanin qualified in 12th place in 55.62.

Alexander Dale Oen of Norway broke the six-year-old championship record in qualifying for the semi-finals of the men's 100m breaststroke in 1:00.11. Oleg Lisagor set the previous championship record of 1:00.29 at Berlin in 2002.

Hugues Duboscq of France was second and Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine was third.

In the women's 200m backstroke, Stanislava Komarova of Russia was fastest in the morning heats with a time of 2:11.27, ahead of two Hungarians, Nikolatt Szepesi and Evelyn Verraszto.