Thu, Mar 20, 2008 page18

• Dutch quartet smashes world record

  LONG WAIT The crowd in Eindhoven had reason to cheer as two home quartets won medals in the first European Swimming Championships in the Netherlands for 40 years

  • AP
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  The Netherlands set a world record in the women's 400m freestyle relay on the opening day of the European swimming championships on Tuesday with a time of 3 minutes, 33.62 seconds.

  The Dutch team made up of Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis led throughout the race in front of a raucous home crowd, and easily beat the old mark of 3:35.22 set two years ago by Germany. Italy were second in 3:41.06 and Sweden were third in 3:41.28.

  Dekker led off strongly and was already a second inside the world record time after her leg before 17-year-old Kromowidjojo took over and kept up the pace. Heemskerk faded slightly to turn over to Veldhuis just .06 seconds inside record pace.

  

  From left, Magdalena Veldhuis, Femke Heemskerk, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Inge Dekker of the Dutch 4x100m freestyle relay team show their gold medals after winning in a new world record time at the European Swimming Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Tuesday.

  PHOTO: EPA

  But Veldhuis, the freestyle short course world record holder over 50m, pulled away again to make the new record safe as the crowd roared her home at the first European swimming championships to be held in the Netherlands since 1966.

  "Since we already set a world record in this event on short course, we now also wanted to do the same on long course," Veldhuis said. "But we weren't sure whether we could achieve that feat. We never reckoned with such a clear improvement. All four of us swam fantastic."

  In the evening's final race, Sweden won the men's 400 freestyle relay in 3:15.41 ahead of Italy. The Netherlands, with two-time Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband swimming the final leg, were third.

  

  Russia's Yury Prilukov swims in the men's 400m freestyle final at the Swimming European Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Tuesday.

  PHOTO: EPA

  The Swedish team included Stefan Nystrand, who holds the short-course world record over 100m, as well as Marcus Piehl, Petter Stymne and Jonas Persson.

  "We have been aiming at a medal here, and we would have been happy with second place, but now it's even gold," Nystrand said. "This is an unexpected bonus."

  Filippo Magnini said a slight error may have cost Italy gold.

  "I slipped on the starting block and thus didn't have the right push," he said. "It is possible that's the reason we lost the gold medal."

  The two individual finals of the night both had familiar winners.

  Yury Prilukov defended his European 400m freestyle title, charging past Massimiliano Rosolino in the final lap of the pool to touch in 3:45.10, a new championship record.

  Rosolino, who won silver over the distance at the Sydney Olympics, led for most of the race but the 29-year-old Italian faded to second in 3:45.19 as the Russian powered to a 26.77-second final lap. Nikita Lobintsev of Russia was third in 3:46.75.

  Alessia Filippi of Italy went one better than Rosolino to retain her European 400 individual medley title in a time of 4:36.68.

  Yana Martynova of Russia led early and was 2.5 seconds inside world record pace at the half way point before Filippi overtook her on the second half and pulled away on the final freestyle leg.

  Katinka Hosszu of Hungary also overtook the Russian to claim silver in 4:37.43 and Martynova ended third in 4:37.86.

  Four-time Olympic champion Yana Klochkova failed to qualify for the final.
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