Swimming Euros: Heartbreak for Barnea in fourth-place finish

By ALLON SINAI, AP
Guy Barnea came within four-hundredths of a second of Israel's first European Championship medal in eight years on Friday, finishing fourth in the 50-meter backstroke in Eindhoven. Barnea clocked a time of 25.48 seconds in the non-Olympic event, with Lubos Krizko of Slovakia touching the wall a fraction of a second faster to win the bronze medal. On Saturday, Miki Malul advanced to the final of the 50m breaststroke from seventh position in a time of 28.28s. Despite securing a top-12 finish Malul will not be traveling to Beijing as the 50m breaststroke is not an Olympic event. Also in Eindhoven, Alain Bernard of France broke the world record in the 100-meter freestyle for the second time in two days Saturday, setting a new mark of 47.50 seconds. Bernard beat his record of 47.60 that he set Friday in the semifinals to shatter Pieter van den Hoogenband's old mark from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Olympic silver medalist Frederica Pellegrini was disqualified in the heats of the women's 200-meter freestyle Saturday for a false start at the European swimming championships, and defending champion Laure Manaudou did not start. Meanwhile, Australian Emily Seebohm broke the world record in the non-Olympic 50-meter backstroke at the Australian swimming trials on Saturday. Seebohm finished in a time of 27.95 seconds, taking 0.05 seconds off American Hayley McGregory's mark set two weeks ago. It was the second world record of the night after Stephanie Rice lowered the 400-meter individual medley mark. "The goal was pretty much all this season to get that world record... I just had to go under 28 this time," Seebohm said.