Germany beat own world swim record
DUBLIN, Ireland, (Reuters) -- Germany beat their own world best time in the men's 4x50 meters medley relay at the European short-course championships on Thursday.
The quartet of Thomas Rupprath, Mark Warnecke, Fabian Friedrich and Carsten Dehmlow clocked one minute 34.46 seconds ahead of Sweden and the Swiss.
That eclipsed the 1:34.72 set by compatriots at the last championships in Riesa, Germany, 12 months ago.
Germany's latest triumph came during the opening session of the four-day meet featuring more than 500 swimmers from 40 countries at Ireland's National Aquatic Center in Dublin.
Finland's Jani Sievinen denied Olympic champion Massimiliano Rosolino a first-day golden double when he defeated the Italian in the men's 200 meters individual medley final.
Rosolino, gold medalist in the 200 medley at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, shared the first title of the championships when he dead-heated with Russia's Yuri Prilukov in the 400 freestyle, clocking 3:40.19.
Returning to the starting blocks barely an hour later, Rosolino was unable to claim a second gold when he was beaten by defending champion Sievinen, the reigning world short-course champion.
Sievinen hit the front on the backstroke -- second leg of the individual medley -- and surged away to win in a championship record one minute 55.40 seconds.
Rosolino trailed fifth halfway through the race. He moved up to take the silver in 1:56.70 but never threatened the Finn. Peter Mankoc of Slovenia took bronze in 1:57.03.
Britain's Mark Foster overcame a poor start to regain the men's 50m freestyle title having just sneaked into the semifinals in a swim-off for the last qualifying place from the morning's heats.
The 33-year-old then posted the fastest semifinal time before hurtling to final victory in 21.42 seconds from Milorad Cavic of Serbia-Montenegro (21.49) and Bartosz Kizierowski of Poland (21.54). Foster also triumphed in 1996, '98 and '99.
Alenka Kejzar collected Slovenia's second title of the day when she scored a runaway victory in the women's 200 individual medley after team mate Blaz Medvesek had won the men's 200m backstroke.
Kejzar, silver medalist in 2002, took the lead on the backstroke and stretched away to win in 2:09.32 in the absence of Ukrainian Olympic champion Yana Klochkova, who had won the title for the last four years.
Hanna Shcherba of Belarus took the silver in 2:11.00 and Teresa Rohmann of Germany the bronze in 2:11.44.
Hungary's Eva Risztov retained the women's 200m butterfly crown, leading from start to finish in 2:06.72 from Francesca Segat of Italy and Denmark's Mette Jacobsen.
Germany's Sarah Poewe deposed Sweden's Emma Igelstrom as women's 50m breaststroke champion, winning in a championship record 30.40. Igelstrom, winner for the last three years, took silver in 30.59
