European Championships: Final Day Recap, Results; Marleen Veldhuis, Federica Pellegrini Set World Records; Laszlo Cseh, Great Britain Set European Records

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, March 24. WITH three event world records falling thus far at the European Championships, fans were in for a treat as Marleen Veldhuis gave the meet its fourth such effort during the final day of swimming.

Meanwhile, Federica Pellegrini matched the effort with a world record in the 400 free, the fifth of the meet.

Additionally, several more European records also fell throughout the final evening of swimming.

Women's 50 free finals
Netherlands' Marleen Veldhuis broke Inge de Bruijn's world record of 24.13 in the event with a smoking hot 24.09. Hinkelien Schreuder of the Netherlands finished second in 24.59, while Sweden's Therese Alshammar placed third in 24.71.

Click here for complete coverage of the record-breaking swim.

Event Results.

Men's 50 free finals
France's Alain Bernard finally ran out of world-record breaking gas during his final event of the meet. After already capturing the 100 free global standard twice, and the 50 free record yesterday, Bernard could not match his 21.50 in the splash-and-dash as he wound up with a seriously swift time of 21.66 regardless.

Croatia's Duje Draganja picked up second place with a time of 22.00, while Sweden's Stefan Nystrand took third in 22.16.

Event Results.

Women's 50 breast finals
Germany's Janne Schaefer tracked down the meet record in the sprint breaststroke event with a time of 31.08 to win the event. That performance eclipsed the 31.17 set by Emma Igelstroem of Sweden in 2002.

Meanwhile, Russian teenage star Yuliya Efimova placed second in 31.41, while Austria's Mirna Jukic took third in 31.59.

Event Results.

Women's 200 fly finals
France's Aurore Mongel emerged from the women's 200 fly with the title when she touched out Hungary's Emese Kovacs, 2:06.59 to 2:06.71, for the win.

Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia captured third with a time of 2:09.32, just beating out Russia's Yana Martynova (2:09.52).

Event Results.

Men's 400 IM finals
Hungary's Laszlo Cseh still has some serious ground to make up before he approaches the levels of Michael Phelps, who owns the world record with a 4:06.22, but Cseh improved upon his European record with a 4:09.59 to inch closer as the second-fastest man in the event. His previous continental standard of 4:09.86 was set in 2006.

Greece's Ioannis Drymonakos finished second in 4:14.72, while Italy's Luca Marin snared third in 4:16.69.

Event Results.

Women's 400 free finals
Italy's Federica Pellegrini pocketed her second career world record with a scintillating time of 4:01.53 in the middle distance event to take the standard away from chief rival Laure Manaudou of France. Manaudou previously set the recored with a 4:02.13 in 2006.

France's Coralie Balmy took second in 4:04.15, while Romania's Camelia Potec placed third in 4:05.62.

Complete coverage of the record-breaking swim.

Complete results.

Women's 400 medley relay finals
Great Britain's quartet of Elizabeth Simmonds (1:01.20), Kate Haywood (1:07.11), Jemma Lowe (58.00) and Fran Halsall (53.02) crushed the European record in the event with a time of 3:59.33. Previously, Germany held the standard with a 4:01.54 set back in 2002 at the European Championships.

Russia's team of Anastasia Zueva, Yuliya Efimova, Natalia Sutyagina and Daria Belyakina took second in 4:00.47 with Zueva beginning to make the sub-minute 100 back routine with a 59.72 leadoff.

Netherlands' foursome of Hinkelien Schreuder, Jolijn Van Valkengoed, Inge Dekker and Marleen Veldhuis took third in 4:04.41 with Veldhuis clocking a brilliant 52.75 anchor to bring the team all the way back from seventh at the final exchange.

Event Results.

Men's 400 medley relay finals
A national record closed the final session of swimming at an extremely exciting 2008 European Championships as Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin (54.13), Grigory Falko (1:00.45), Evgeny Korotyshkin (51.35) and Andrey Grechin (48.32) led throughout the course of the relay to clock a 3:34.25.

Croatia's Gordan Kozulj, Vanja Rogulj, Mario Todorovic and Duje Draganja finished second in 3:36.32, while Sweden's Simon Sjodin, Jonas Andersson, Lars Frolander and Stefan Nystrand took third in 3:36.85.

Event Results.

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