Swimming: Germans shatter another world record

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Germany hurtled to their third world record of the European swimming championships today with a riproaring victory in the women's 4x200 metres freestyle relay.

The Germans had already obliterated two Australian world marks in Budapest but this time it was an American record which was consigned to history by a vast 2.60 seconds.

Petra Dallmann, Daniela Samulski, Britta Steffen and Annika Liebs clocked seven minutes 50.82 seconds to destroy the world mark of 7:53.42 set by the Americans at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The feat, which closed the day's action before another rainstorm engulfed the Alfred Hajos pool, capped a spectacular evening in which Laure Manaudou bagged two individual gold medals and added a bronze in the French relay squad.

Manaudou, who had already won gold in the 800 metres freestyle, added the 200-metre individual medley and 100-metre backstroke in less than 40 minutes, but even she was powerless to stop the Germans in the relay.

Otylia Jedrzejczak had given Poland a big lead on the first leg but Samulski put Germany in front on the second. Steffen stretched the advantage and Liebs charged home in the fastest split of 1:55.64, which even the indefatigable Manaudou could not match.

The Germans had broken Australia's 4x100 freestyle relay world mark on Monday with Steffen recording the fastest relay split of all time before herself topping that on Wednesday with another world record in the 100 metres freestyle.

As the heavens opened, the last East German long-course European record - the 4x200 freestyle relay mark of 7:55.47 dating back to 1987 and the oldest in the book - had been washed away by a new generation of Germans.

-REUTERS