SEVILLE, Spain, – Italy’s Emiliano Brembilla destroyed his competitors to win gold in the men’s 400m freestyle. Brembilla’s time of 3:45.96 was the third-fastest in history. Italian Massimiliano Rosolino took the silver in 3:48.11 and Britain’s Paul Palmer took the bronze in 3:50.03.
Denmark’s Mette Jacobsen defended her 100m butterfly title in a great duel with Slovakia’s Martina Moravcova, the fastest qualifier from the prelims. Jacobsen touched out Moravcova 59.64 to 59.74.
Alexander Goukov of Belarus and Agnes Kovacs of Hungary both completed the breaststroke double. Goukov won the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2:13.90, touching half a second ahead of Russian Andrei Korneyev, who was reinstated as the Olympic bronze medalist on appeal in Atlanta last year after he tested positive for the stimulant bromantan.
Kovacs, who broke her own European record in winning the women’s 200m breaststroke on Wednesday, added the 100 to her dossier with a time of 1:08.08.
Olympic champion Alexander Popov led Russia to victory in the men’s 400m freestyle relay in European record time. Popov led off the relay in 49.02 and Roman Egorov, Denis Pimenkov and Vladimir Pyshnenko finished the job in 3:16.85.