DUBLIN, 15 December 2003 — Double Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband broke his own European record with a storming victory in the 200 freestyle on the final day of the European short-course championships yesterday.

He hurtled through the first 100 meters inside Ian Thorpe’s world record pace and, although the Dutchman could not sustain that level, hit the wall in one minute 41.89 seconds to beat the mark of 1:42.45 he set on Jan. 26 this year in Berlin.

Thorpe’s world record is 1:41.10.

The Dutchman, who had come close to a 100 meters freestyle world record on Saturday, left his rivals far behind. Kvetoslav Svoboda of the Czech Republic took the silver in 1:44.56 and Lithuania’s Saulius Binevicius the bronze in 1:45.09.

Van den Hoogenband won the 100 freestyle in 46.81 seconds, 0.07 seconds short of the world mark set in 1994 by Russia’s Alexander Popov, whom he toppled as Olympic champion in 2000.

Germany’s Antje Buschschulte, who retained her 100 meters backstroke title on Friday, set a European record of 2:04.23 to win her second gold of the meeting in the 200 backstroke as she beat the 2:04.44 set by Briton Sarah Price in Australia in 2001.

Price, the defending champion, set the pace for the first 100 meters but finished fourth behind Buschschulte, Russia’s Stanislava Komarova and Ukraine’s Iryna Amshennikova.

Two European Wins for Britain

Ian Edmond broke a European record and Melanie Marshall made it two titles in a row for Britain to hoist their golden tally to six on the last day of the European short-course swimming championships.

Edmond swept to a runaway victory in the men’s 200 meters breaststroke and then Marshall came through with a blistering finish to take the gold in the women’s 200 meters freestyle. Edmond clocked 2:05.63 to beat the European short-course record of 2:06.95 set by Austria’s Maxim Podoprigora in Berlin on Jan. 25 this year.

Andrew Bree, roared on by the home crowd, brought Ireland their first medal of the championships when he came through for the silver in 2:08.02. Dutchman Thijs van Valkengoed won bronze in 2:08.30.

Dutch Set World Mark in Men’s Sprint Freestyle Relay

The Netherlands set a new short-course world record in the men’s 4x50 freestyle at the European short-course championships.

Mark Veens, Johan Kenkhuis, Gijs Damen and Pieter van den Hoogenband clocked one minute 25.55 seconds to beat the 1:25.87 mark set by Aaron Ciarla, Nate Dusing, Neil Walker and Jason Lezak of the United States at East Meadow, New York, on Oct. 20, 2001.