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Another German world record, Manaudou, Poland get two titles (Roundup)
By Dietmar Fuchs
Aug 3, 2006, 19:36 GMT

Budapest - Germany smashed the world record in the women's 4x200 metres freestyle relay at the European swimming championships on Thursday to upstage the day's two-time winner Laure Manadou of France.

Petra Dallmann, Daniela Samulski, Britta Steffen and Annika Liebs clocked 7 minutes 50.82 seconds, lowering the previous mark of 7:53.42 minutes from a US quartet at the Athens Olympics on August 18, 2004 by a massive 2.6 seconds.

Dallmann, Steffen and Liebs were already part of the team which won the 4x100m freestyle relay in world record time on Monday, and Steffen also got the 100m freestyle world record Wednesday.

Poland came second and Manaudou anchored France to third place after 200 metres medley and 100m backstroke titles earlier in the afternoon for a championship tally of three wins.

Germany got a second win on the day from Helge Meuuws and there was also double delight for Poland when Pawel Korzeniowski won the 200m butterfly and Slawomir Kuczko the 200m breaststroke after initial winner Loris Facci of Italy was disqualified.

Germany were fancied to do well in the women's relay and were in full command when Steffen pulled away on the third leg. But it was Liebs who made sure that the world record was smashed on the anchor leg.

Poland with sentimental favourite Otylia Jedrzejczak - who suffered severe injuries in a car crash last fall in which her brother was killed - clocked 7:56.32 and France had 7:56,44.

By then Manaudou had already won two golds within a span of 40 minutes.

Just 24 hours after taking the 800m freestyle in European record time, the 19-year-old Manaudou swam away from her rivals on the final freestyle leg to win the medley in 2 minutes 12.69 seconds.

Katarzyna Baranowska of Poland came second in 2:13.36 minutes and the 400m medley champion Alessia Filippi of Italy had to settle for third in the shorter race, clocking 2:13.75 minutes.

Manaudou then stole the backstroke title in 1:00.88 minutes from Germans Antje Buschschulte (1:01.40) and Nadine Pietsch (1:01.55) on the home stretch.

Manaudou has further events to come and should get at least one more gold in the 400m freestyle where she is the reigning world and Olympic champion and world record holder.

In the men's breaststroke, Facci's delight turned to shock when he was disqualified after initially winning in 2:11.91.

Instead, Kuczko got the medal 20 minutes later in first place with 2:12.12, Italian Paolo Bossini came second in 2:12.35 and Kristopher Gildchrist was third in 2.13.21 minutes.

Korzeniowski could celebrate Poland's next title immediately as he won the 200m butterfly in 1:55.04 by a body length over Ioannis Drymonakos of Greece (1:57.03) and Nikolay Skvortsov of Russia (1:57.12).

Meeuw had the best finish in the backstroke sprint to win in 25:06 seconds ahead of Greek Arsteidis Grigoriadis (25.14) and Matthew Clay of Britain (25:15).

Earlier Thursday, Andreas Wels and Tobias Schellenberg of Germany won the 3m synchronized diving event with 403.86 points. The women's 10m platform diving was scheduled for later in the day.

The championships continue Friday with the men's 100m and 1,500m freestyle and the women's 100m butterfly and 200m breaststroke. The diving events are the women's 10m synchronised event and the men's 3m board.