European Championships: Day Five Recap, Results; Alain Bernard Drops 100 Free World Record; Nina Zhivanevskaya Follows With 50 Back ER

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, March 22. THE swimming world is enjoying some amazing action at the moment. With the Australian Trials producing two world records earlier in the day and the NCAA Division I Women's Championships providing some swift yard swims, the European Championships continued with its fifth day of competition.

France's Alain Bernard stepped up to the plate when he dropped his world record in the 100 free. Spain's Nina Zhivanevskaya followed with a European record in the 50 back.

Men's 1500 free finals
Russia's Yury Prilukov dusted his own meet record to start the day when he punched the pad in 14:50.40 to eclipse his 14:51.93 from 2006. The time, however, was three seconds off his national record of 14:47.29 set at the 2007 World Championships. His 14:50.40 did crack into the top 15th all time in the event.

Great Britain's David Davies finished four seconds behind with another sub-15:00 effort when he touched second in 14:54.28. He still has plenty of room within his potential as his national record time of 14:45.95 still stands from 2004.

Poland's Mateusz Sawrymowicz captured the final sub-15:00 performance for a bronze-medal time of 14:58.78

Event Results

Women's 200 free semis
With former world-record holder Federica Pellegrini drawing a disqualification from prelims and current world-record holder Laure Manaudou electing not to compete in the event, the 200 free was wide open.

Hungary's Agnes Mutina touched out Romania's Camelia Potec for lane four, 1:58.68 to 1:58.71, while Slovenia's Sara Isakovic finished third in 1:58.79.

Other top eight performances came from Hungary's Evelyn Verraszto (1:58.84), Sweden's Ida Marko-Varga (1:59.24), Sweden's Josefin Lillhage (1:59.27), Russia's Daria Belyakina (1:59.36) and Italy's Flavia Zoccari (1:59.52).

Event Results

Men's 100 fly semis
Slovenia's Peter Mankoc grabbed the top seed during finals with a time of 52.23, which cleared his national record time of 52.30 set last year at Worlds. Meanwhile, Andriy Serdinov of Ukraine clocked a 52.30 to qualify second.

Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov finished right behind with a third-place 52.32, while Ukraine's Sergiy Breus collected fourth with a time of 52.37.

The bottom four qualifiers for the championship heat were Netherlands' Robin Christiaan Van Aggele (52.60), Croatia's Mario Todorovic (52.63), Spain's Rafael Munoz Perez (52.66) and Russia's Evgeny Korotyshkin (52.73). Perez dropped his national record of 52.71 set earlier in the meet.

Event Results

Women's 200 breast finals
Russian youngster Yuliya Efimova came within moments of taking down Agnes Kovacs' European record in the 200 breast with a huge personal-best time drop to 2:24.09. Previously, Efimova held her national record with a 2:25.23 set last summer, but came up just short of Kovacs' 2:24.03 set in 2000. The time also shot Efimova into the top 10 all time in the event.

Austria's Mirna Jukic ripped off a 2:24.58 to dip under 2:25 for the first time and lower her national record of 2:25.18 set way back in 2003.

Efimova's teammate, Alena Alekseeva, snatched third-place honors with a time of 2:25.22.

Also in the heat, Ukraine's Yuliya Pidlisna dropped her national record to 2:27.81 with a fourth-place swim. The old record had been a 2:27.97 from earlier in the meet.

Event Results

Men's 100 free finals
A day after erasing Pieter van den Hoogenband's world record with a sterling 47.60, France's Alain Bernard went even lower with a 47.50. Sweden's Stefan Nystrand finished second in 48.40, while Italy's Filippo Magnini took third in 48.53.

For more complete coverage of the record-breaking swim, click here.

Event Results

Women's 50 back semis
Spain's Nina Zhivanevskaya dropped the European record in the sprint back with a swift time of 28.13 as the renovation of the sprint back women's event continues throughout the world. On the heels of Emily Seebohm's world record this morning of 27.95, Zhivanevskaya wiped out Croatia's Sanja Jovanovic's short-lived European record of 28.17 set during the first semifinal. It was an amazing drop for the Spaniard as she lowered her national record of 28.43 set during prelims.

Jovanovic dropped her national record with a second-place time of 28.17 during the first semifinal, lowering her 28.25 set earlier this month at a meet in Zagreb. That effort erased the former European record of 28.19 set by Janine Pietsch of Germany in 2005, which had been the world record at the time

Russia's Anastasia Zueva, one of the most recent breakout backstroke stars, qualified third in 28.71. She has plenty in the tank as her national record is a 28.26 from last month.

Other championship aspirants will be Belarus' Aliaksandra Herasimenia (28.84), Spain's Mercedes Peris Minguet (28.93), Netherlands' Hinkelien Schreuder (29.00), Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppala (29.01) and Hungary's Nikolett Szepesi (29.20).

Event Results

Men's 200 back semis
Austria's Markus Rogan paced the semifinal round when he clocked a time of 1:57.75. With a 1:55.74 national record to his credit, he should have plenty more in the tank in finals. His last 50 of 28.02 obliterated the field as he stamped his name as the favorite.

Italy's Damiano Lestingi wrapped up second seed with a time of 1:58.59, while Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin placed third in 1:58.91.

Other top eight finishers included Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer Faber (1:58.94), Romania's Razvan Florea (1:59.11), Croatia's Gordan Kozulj (1:59.25), Austria's Sebastian Stoss (1:59.89) and Italy's Luca Marin (2:00.25).

Event Results

Women's 100 fly finals
Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem touched out Netherlands' Inge Dekker, 58.44 to 58.50, to emerge with the title in the two-lap fly. France's Aurore Mongel placed just behind the duo with a third-place 58.54.

Sjoestroem just missed her national record of 58.38 set earlier this meet, while Mongel missed the French record of 58.33 set by Alena Popchanka in 2006.

Event Results

Men's 50 breast semis
Italy's Alessandro Terrin just missed his national record of 27.48 set in 2006 when he earned lane four in the championship heat with a 27.50. World-record holder Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine qualified second in 27.58, while Netherlands' Lennart Stekelenburg finished third in 27.95.

The rest of the top seven were France's Hugues Duboscq (27.97), Slovenia's Matjaz Markic (27.98), Norway's Alexander Dale Oen (27.99) and Israel's Michael Malul (28.28). Serbia's Mladen Tepavcevic and Ukraine's Igor Borysik tied for eighth with matching 28.32s and will have a swimoff.

Event Results

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