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Bernard breaks third world record

Three days, three records.

Alain Bernard set a world record in the 50m freestyle on Sunday after twice lowering the 100 freestyle mark in the previous two days at the European swimming championships.

The Frenchman swam 21.50 seconds to beat the time of 21.56 set last month by Eamon Sullivan of Australia.

Bernard set a world record of 47.50 seconds to win the 100 freestyle final on Saturday. That took one-tenth of a second off the record of 47.60 he swam on Friday in the semi-finals to shatter Pieter van den Hoogenband's old mark set at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

On Sunday, 24-year-old Bernard easily beat Stefan Nystrand of Sweden, who finished in 22.12 in their second semi-final to be third fastest into the final.

Russia's Anastasia Zueva won her second gold of the championships in the 50 backstroke in a European record, adding to her victory in the 100 backstroke -- also in a European record time -- on Friday.

The 17-year-old time of 28.05 was well outside the world record set earlier in the day and on the other side of the world by Sophie Edington, who clocked 27.67 at the Australian Olympic trials in Sydney.

Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine took the European 50 breaststroke in 27.43 after sharing the title for the last two years with Alessandro Terrin of Italy following the pair's tie at the last European championships. This time, Terrin had to settle for bronze as Alexander Dale Oen took silver.

Sara Isakovic of Slovenia won the women's 200 freestyle in 1:57.45, touching just ahead of Camelia Potec of Romania.

Evgeny Korotyshkin of Russia won the men's 100 butterfly in 51.89 after starting in lane eight because he had the slowest qualifying time.

Flavia Rigamonti of Switzerland won the first ever European championship women's 1,500 final in 15:58.54.

Erika Villaecija of Spain collected her second silver of the championships after placing second in the 800 freestyle.

Markus Rogan added the 200 backstroke title to the 100 backstroke gold he won earlier in the championships.

Filippo Magnini anchored Italy to their fifth straight 800 freestyle title.

In the diving competition, Julia Pakhalina of Russia won the women's 3m springboard with 347.40 points.

The German pair of Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding won the men's 10m platform synchro.
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