BUDAPEST, Hungary, July 31. DURING a hot and humid first day of competition that witnessed 95 degree heat at the 2006 LEN European Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Monday, the German women\u2019s team of Petra Dallmann, Daniela Goetz, Britta Steffen and Annika Liebs erased the world record in the 400-meter freestyle relay with a sterling time of 3:35.22 at the new pool at Margaret Island.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 400-meter Freestyle Relay Final<\/b>
\nThe German relay led from start-to-finish in a fantastic world-record time of 3:35.22. The German quartet downed the previous world record held by the Australians of 3:35.94. The splits went as follows: Dallmann, 54.53; Goetz, 53.87; Steffen, 52.66; and Liebs, 54.16.<\/p>\n
Men's 400-meter Freestyle Finals<\/b>
\nItalian Massimiliano Rosolino started out fast and led until the 350-meter mark, but tired and let Russian Yury Prilukov slip by to claim gold in a meet-record time of 3:45.73. Meanwhile, Rosolino posted a 3:46.87. Additionally, Prilukov\u2019s effort surpassed Italian Emiliano Brembilla\u2019s standard set in Sevilla, Spain in 1997.<\/p>\n
Women's 50-meter Butterfly Semifinals<\/b>
\nSweden\u2019s Theresa Alshamar posted the fastest time in 26.10, while Inge Dekker picked up the second-fastest time in 26.31. Meanwhile, favorite Antje Buschschulte of Germany suffered a disqualification for falling in before the whistle.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 100-meter Backstroke Semifinals<\/b>
\nRussian Arkady Vyatchanin clocked a meet-record time of 53.91 to grab the top-qualifying time from the semifinals. His performance wiped away German Stev Theloke\u2019s previous standard of 54.42 set in 2002 in Berlin. Austrian Markus Rogan also cleared the meet record, but fell short of Vyatchanin in 54.27.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 400-meter IM<\/b>
\nItalian Alessia Filippi posted a wire-to-wire victory in 4:35.80. Meanwhile, Germany\u2019s Nicole Hetzer earned silver in 4:37.97, while Poland\u2019s Katarzyna Baranowska pocketed bronze in 4:40.02.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the European Short Course Champs last December I changed my life,\u201d Filippi said. \u201cI started my studies and got a new coach. My goal is to improve my time for next year's World Championships and win the gold in 2008 at Beijing."<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 100-meter Breaststroke Semifinals<\/b>
\n2002 Berlin European Champion Oleg Lisogor of Russian clocked the fastest qualifying time of 1:00.53. Meanwhile, France\u2019s Hugues Duboscq posted the second-best time with a 1:00.72.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 200-meter Backstroke Semifinals<\/b>
\nFrance\u2019s Esther Baron touched with the fastest qualifying time of 2:11.91, while Ukrainian Iryna Amshennikova clocked a second-place 2:12.14.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 50-meter Butterfly Semifinals<\/b>
\nUkrainian Sergiy Breus rolled to the fastest qualifying time of 23.71, while Denmark\u2019s Jakob Andkjaer earned the second-best time of 23.76.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 400-meter Freestyle Relay Final<\/b>
\nItaly\u2019s quartet of Alessandro Calvi, Christian Galenda, Lorenzo Vismara and Filippo Magnini blazed to a meet-record time of 3:15.23 to capture gold. The effort wiped out the Italians\u2019 previous record of 3:15.66 set in 2004 in Madrid, Spain.<\/p>\n
Norbert Agh contributed to this report<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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