Austria Takes Two at Euro Champs: Rogan and Jukic Win Gold

By Phillip Whitten

MADRID, Spain, May 15. BEFORE this year's European Championships in Madrid, no Austrian man had ever won a continental title. But Markus Rogan became the first earlier in the meet when he won the 200 IM, after missing the 100 backstroke tile by one-hundredth of a second.

Now Rogan has two Euro titles to add to his impressive resume, as he blazed the 200m backstroke in a Championship record 1:57.58. It wasn't easy as Romania's Razvan Florea dogged him all the way, touching in a national record 1:58.00 with France's Simon Dufour close behind in 1:58.54.

To make things even sweeter, Rogan was joined on the victory stand by 17 year-old teammate Mirna Jukic, who repeated as European champion in the 200 meter breaststroke in 2:27.25 — more than two seconds ahead of Slovenia's Alenka Kejzar (2:29.71), a student at SMU, and Russia's Elena Bogomazova (2:29.77).

France's Franck Esposito, the European record-holder in the 200 fly who failed to final in that event, made amends by finishing second in the 100 fly in 52.65. Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov won the race in 52.31.

Italy raced to an easy victory in the men's 800 free relay, swimming a Championship record 7:11.93. Russia was second, more than five seconds behind.

Romania's Camelia Potec and France's Solenne Figues waged an epic battle in the 200 free, with Potec winning by a tenth of a second in a Championship record 1:58.20.

EUROPEAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Madrid, Spain
50 meter pool

May 10-16, 2004

RESULTS:
May 15, 2004

MEN
100 meter Butterfly
1, Andriy Serdinov, Ukraine 52.31
2, Franck Esposito, France 52.65
3, Nikolay Skvortsov, Russia 52.75
4, Denis Sylantyev, Ukraine 52.85
5, Evgeny Korotyshkin, Russia 52.96
6, Simao Morgado, Portugal 53.69
7, Zsolt Gaspar, Hungary 54.16
8, Pavel Lagoun, Belarus 54.17

200 meter Backstroke
1, Markus Rogan, Austria 1:57.58 CR
2, Razvan Florea, Romania 1:58.00
3, Simon Dufour, France 1:58.54
4, Blaz Medvesek, Slovenia 1:59.75
5, Jorge Sanchez, Spain 2:00.95
6, Arkady Vyatchanin, Russia 2:01.13
7, Derya Buyukuncu, Turkey 2:02.12
8, Evgeny Aleshin, Russia 2:02.23

800 meter Freestyle Relay
1, Italy 7:11.93 CR
(Emiliano Brembilla, Matteo Pelliciari, Massimiliano Rosolino, Filippo Magnini)
2, Russia 7:16.95
(Maxin Kuznetsov, Evgeny Natsvin, Andrei Kapralov, Yuri Prilukov)
3, France 7:19.00
(Fabien Horth, Nicolas Kintz, Nicolas Rostoucher, Amaury Leveaux)
4, Greece 7:21.26
5, Netherlands 7:24.68
6, Ukraine 7:26.05
7, Denmark 7:29.23
8, Czech Republic 7:30.10

WOMEN
200 meter Freestyle
1, Camelia Potec, Romania 1:58.20 CR
2, Solenne Figues, France 1:58.30
3, Josefin Lillhage, Sweden 1:59.45
4, Federica Pellegrini, Italy 2:00.28
5, Tatiana Rouba, Spain 2:00.45
6, Marleen Veldhuis, Netherlands 2:00.61
7, Alena Popchanka, Belarus 2:01.23
8, Melissa Cabellero, Spain 2:01.96

200 meter Breaststroke
1. Mirna Jukic, Austria 2:27.25
2. Alenka Kejzar, Slovenia 2:29.71
3. Elena Bogomazova, Russia 2:29.77
4. Ekaterina Kormatcheva, Russia 2.30.11
5. Agnes Kovacs, Hungary 2:30.29
6. Sara Perez, Spain 2:30.70
7. Sara Larsson, Sweden 2:31.49
8. Smiljana Marinovic, Croatia 2:31.84.

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