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Alain Bernard of France broke the men's 100m freestyle world record with a time of 47.60 seconds at the European swimming championships on Friday.
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EINDHOVEN (Netherlands) - ALAIN Bernard overturned the old order on Friday when he bolted off with Pieter van den Hoogenband's 100 metres freestyle world record which had resisted all-comers for seven and a half years.
Dutchman Van den Hoogenband had pulled out of the morning's heats due to illness, but it was a shock for all at the Olympic champion's home pool when the 24-year-old Frenchman touched home at the end of his semi-final at the European Championships.
He had carved nearly a quarter of a second from the 47.84 seconds world mark the Dutchman set in the semi-finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
'This is a surprise for me. I wanted to do my best today and then go really fast tomorrow (in the final),' Bernard told local television. 'It is extra special to do this in the Netherlands.' Bernard hit the wall in 47.60, improving his previous best by a vast 0.52 seconds and installing himself as overwhelming favourite to win the final. He has also made himself a marked man for the Olympics in Beijing in August.
'It happens when you least expect it, although we did work extremely hard in training, focusing on my starts which is an area I needed to improve,' Bernard told French radio.
'I knew I had it in me, I knew it would happen, I just didn't know when. I've been working extremely hard for years for this. For 18 months I've known I could swim that fast.
'When I saw the time I was shaking all over, which does not mean I didn't believe I could do it.
Blue riband
He wished Van den Hoogenband a speedy recovery and realised he himself would now be favourite to win at the Olympics, where the Dutchman has been hoping to become the first man to claim the 100 freestyle three times.
Bernard is the first Frenchman to hold the world record for swimming's blue riband event in more than 40 years, following Alex Jany, who swam 55.8 in 1947 and Alain Gottvalles, whose 52.9 stood from 1964 to 1967.
He won the European short-course 100 freestyle in Debrecen, Hungary, last December but the Olympic-size 50-metre long-course pool is the one that really counts.
He hit the 50-metre turn in 22.88, well inside Van den Hoogenband's world record split of 23.16, and came back at much the same speed as the Dutchman achieved in his unforgettable swim in Sydney in the days when he beat the great Alexander Popov in the 100 and Ian Thorpe in his pomp in the 200.
Now Bernard has toppled the king from his world record throne and will now seek to reign at the Beijing Olympics.
'It's not over,' he said. 'I don't fix myself any limits. I don't know how fast I can swim. What I do know is I can swim even faster than this.' -- REUTERS
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