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Alain Bernard breaks world record

Laure Manadou, left, and fellow members of the French team watch the anchor leg of the final of the Women's 4x200m freestyle relay during the European Swimming Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

Frenchman Alain Bernard stole the limelight in record-setting style on his way to qualifying for the men's 100m final at the European swimming championships on Friday.

Bernard powered his way down the final 50m of the semis to hit the wall in a new world record time of 47.60sec.

The 24-year-old Frenchman took 0.24sec off the previous world mark held by Dutchman Pieter Van den Hoogenband (47.84).

Bernard's feat came in Van den Hoogenband's home pool, although the reigning two-time Olympic 100m freestyle champion did not participate on Friday having pulled out of the competition citing illness in the wake of failing to qualify from the heats of the 200m freestyle.

Bernard, from Antibes, admitted his record feat had yet to sink in.

"When I looked up and saw I'd broken the record, I couldn't stop shaking. I'm still shaking, it's unbelievable!" he said.

Bernard is only the third swimmer to complete the distance in under 48secs, after Van den Hoogenband and Sweden's Stefan Nystrand.

Nystrand was the second swimmer to break the 48-sec barrier, in Paris, and later he was quick to congratulate the Frenchman.

"It was a great record for him. I really believed he could beat it, but I didn't think he would do it so soon," said the Swede, who clocked 48.70 in his semi.

On Friday swimmers from France were the talk of the pool, although the Greek men claimed a double haul of gold.

Laure Manaudou continued her march back to impressive pre-Olympics form by taking silver in the 100m backstroke.

Manaudou finished behind 17-year-old Russian Anastasia Zueva, who claimed gold by beating the European record that the French swimmer had stolen off her on Thursday.

Manaudou's disappointment evaporated when she helped the women's 4x200m relay to gold ahead of Great Britain and Italy.

Hugues Duboscq followed up his silver in the men's 100m breaststroke with bronze in the 200m, won by Russia's Grigory Falko ahead of Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen, while France's Camille Muffat claimed bronze in the 200m medley.

Greece had two gold medal winners on the night with Aristeidis Grigoriadis winning the 50m backstroke ahead of Flori Lang of Switzerland.

Ioannis Drymonakos then powered up the home straight to claim victory, in a new European mark of 1:54.16, in the men's 200m butterfly ahead of Pawal Korzeniowski.

In other finals Spain's Mireira Belmonte-Garcia claimed the women's 200m medley title with a commanding swim, while Italy's Alessia Filippi claimed the 800m freestyle gold.

In the diving competition Russian legend Dmitry Sautin added to his title haul by winning the men's 3m springboard gold.

The 34-year-old, already the most decorated diver in Olympic history, scored a total of 493.70 points to reclaim the title he last won in 2006 ahead of Ukrainian Illya Kvasha (468.70) and Finland's Joona Puhakka (441.80).
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