EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, March 24. THE European Championships kept rolling as the Netherlands went 1-2 in the women's 50 free to start the final day of action – including a world-record swim from Marleen Veldhuis in the sprint free event.
Veldhuis took down countrywoman's Inge de Bruijn's eight-year old standard of 24.13 set at the 2000 Sydney Games with a ridiculously fast time of 24.09. Additionally, Hinkelien Schreuder took second in 24.59, while Sweden's Therese Alshammar placed third in 24.71.
So far, the Netherlands has owned the record since de Bruijn first tied the record of Jingyi Le of China (24.51 in 1994) with a 24.51 on May 27, 2000.
The record-breaking performance also gave Veldhuis a 50 free world-record sweep as she set the short course variety witha 23.58 in Berlin, Germany on Nov. 17, 2007.
World Record Progressions
Courtesy of USA Swimming
25.96 Jill Sterkel USA Austin 4/10/1980
25.79 Jill Sterkel USA Austin 4/3/1981
25.69 Dara Torres USA Netherlands 1/1/1983
25.62 Dara Torres USA Clovis 7/31/1983
25.61 Dara Torres USA Mission Viejo 7/21/1984
25.34 Tamara Costache BUL Bucharest 7/16/1986
25.28* Tamara Costache BUL Madrid 8/23/1986
24.98 Wenji Yang CHN Canton 4/11/1988
24.79 Wenji Yang CHN Barcelona 7/31/1992
24.51 Jingyi Le CHN Rome 9/11/1994
24.51 Inge de Bruijn NED Sheffield 5/27/2000
24.48 Inge de Bruijn NED Amsterdam 6/4/2000
24.39 Inge de Bruijn NED Rio de Janeiro 6/10/2000
24.13sf Inge de Bruijn NED Sydney 9/22/2000
24.09 Marleen Veldhuis NED Eindhoven 3/24/2008