BUDAPEST, Hungary, Aug. 6 WORLD-record holder Laure Manaudou of France not only lowered her own record in the 400-meter freestyle, she also became the first woman to ever surpass the 4:03 mark with an incredible 4:02.13. Amazingly, she almost cut an entire second off her time en route to the title at the 28th LEN European Championships on Sunday. 4:01 may not be far behind for the swimming superstar.<\/p>\n
Her splits are as follows:
\n27.82, 57.81, 1:28.18, 1:59.11, 2:30.13, 3:01.16, 3:32.03 and 4:02.13.<\/p>\n
Britain picked up the rest of the medals in the event as Joanne Jackson placed well behind Manaudou in 4:07.76 and Caitlin McClatchey finished third in 4:08.13.<\/p>\n
In other action:<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 50-meter Freestyle Final<\/b>
\n100-meter free world-record holder Britta Steffen of Germany came up short of capturing her second individual standard of the meet with a gold-medal 24.72 in the 50 free. Meanwhile, Sweden\u2019s Therese Alshammar, the meet-record holder, took silver in 24.87. Netherlands\u2019 Marleen Veldhuis touched right behind with a bronze-medal 24.89.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 50-meter Freestyle Final<\/b>
\nPoland\u2019s Bartosz Kizierowski took down Alexander Popov\u2019s six-year-old meet standard of 21.95 set in 2000 with a blistering 21.88 to pocket gold. Meanwhile, Ukraine\u2019s Olexandr Volynets took silver in 21.97, while Croatia\u2019s Duje Draganja placed third in 22.14.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 50-meter Breaststroke Final<\/b>
\nRussia\u2019s Elena Bogomazova captured the title in 31.69, while Britain\u2019s Kate Haywood finished second in 31.71. Hungary\u2019s own Agnes Kovacs snared another medal in front of a partisan crowd with a third-place 31.95.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 200-meter Butterfly Final<\/b>
\nWorld-record holder Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland cruised into the top-spot on the podium with a 2:07.09. Meanwhile, Italians Francesca Segat and Caterina Giacchetti closed out the top three as Segat took second in 2:08.96 and Giacchetti placed third in 2:09.01.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 400-meter IM Final<\/b>
\nHungary\u2019s Laszlo Cseh eclipsed his meet record with a sterling 4:09.86 to nearly down his European record of 4:09.63. Meanwhile, Italians snared silver and bronze for the second event in a row as Luca Marin placed second in 4:14.15 and Alessio Boggiatto finished third in 4:16.34.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 400-meter Medley Relay Final<\/b>
\nSomeone finally stopped the Germany freight train rolling through the European Championships as the British contingent of Melanie Marshall, Kristy Balfour, Terri Dunning and Francesca Halsall stopped the clock first in 4:02.24. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Germany\u2019s team of Antje Buschschulte, Sarah Poewe, Annika Mehlhorn and Britta Steffen earned silver in 4:02.35, while France\u2019s Laure Manaudou, Anne-Sophie Le Paranthoen, Alena Popchanka and Celine Couderc won bronze in 4:03.64.<\/p>\n
Fresh off a scintillating world-record performance in the 400 free, Manaudou posted the fastest backstroke leg with a 1:01.21. <\/p>\n
Balfour put the Brits well ahead with her breaststroke split of 1:06.33 at the halfway mark before Popchanka tried to stage a comeback with the fastest butterfly split 58.40.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, Steffen ripped off another amazing relay split during a breakout run at the European Championships with the quickest freestyle leg of 52.75.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 400-meter Medley Relay Final<\/b>
\nRussia\u2019s team of Arkady Vyatchanin, Roman Sludnov, Nikolay Skvortsov and Andrey Kapralov shattered Russia\u2019s meet-record time of 3:36.21 set in 2002 in Berlin with a 3:34.96.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ukraine\u2019s squad of Andriy Oleynyk, Oleg Lisogor, Andriy Serdinov and Yuriy Yegoshin picked up silver in 3:36.21, while Britain\u2019s Liam Tancock, James Gibson, Todd Cooper and Simon Burnett took bronze in 3:36.61.<\/p>\n
Vyatchanin made an early statement by touching well ahead of anyone else with a backstroke leg of 53.66. Lisogor cut the gap by a slim margin with a 59.76 for the quickest breaststroke leg, while his teammate Serdinov continued to track down Russia with a 51.82 in the butterfly. Kapralov, however, held onto the win for Russia with a 48.25 freestyle leg, the third-fastest in the race. Burnett posted the best freestyle leg with a 48.01.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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