World record spree at European championships

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - Marleen Veldhuis and Federica Pellegrini kept up the relentless world record rush at the European swimming championships on Monday to lift the overall count to six at the end of the final day.

Veldhuis sped through the 50 meters freestyle in 24.09 seconds to win her third gold medal of the championships and beat the mark of 24.13 set by her Dutch compatriot Inge de Bruijn at the Sydney Olympics on September 22, 2000.

Italy's Pellegrini, who had been disqualified for a false start in the 200 freestyle heats on Saturday, bounced back by taking the women's 400 meters freestyle world record from Olympic and world champion Laure Manaudou of France.

Pellegrini clocked four minutes 1.53 seconds to better the mark of 4:02.13 mark set by Manaudou at the last European championships in Budapest on August 6, 2006.

Alain Bernard, who had broken three world records in three days, was happy just to win the men's 50 freestyle in 21.66, 0.16 of a second outside the world mark he set in Sunday's semi-finals.

"Today my aim was to win the title. After these three crazy days it was difficult to remain mentally sane. It's my second-best time plus my second gold," the Frenchman, who also broke the 100 meters world mark twice in Eindhoven, told reporters.

Olympic silver medalist Duje Draganja of Croatia took silver in the 50 in 22.00 and Sweden's Stefan Nystrand, second to Bernard in the 100 freestyle, bronze in 22.16.

There were European records for Hungary's Laszlo Cseh in the 400 individual medley, Britain's women's medley relay and Russia's men's medley relay, while 13-year-old Briton Tom Daley unfurled his precocious skills on the 10-metre tower to win the platform diving crown.

SURPRISE TIME

Pellegrini, twice a world 200 freestyle medalist, raced away in the 400 freestyle in the absence of Manaudou, who had left Eindhoven early to catch up on her Olympic training after winning gold in the 200 backstroke and 4x200 freestyle relay and silver in the 100 backstroke.

"Of course I was a bit upset because of my disqualification in the 200 freestyle. Today I desperately wanted to win gold but didn't at all reckon with such a time," Pellegrini told reporters.

Veldhuis anchored the Netherlands to a world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay last Tuesday and won the 100 freestyle on Thursday.

She won the 50 by half a second from Dutch team mate Hinkelien Schreuder, who clocked 24.59. Sweden's Therese Alshammar, silver medalist behind De Bruijn at the 2000 Olympics, took bronze in 24.71. De Bruijn witnessed the passing of her world record 7-½ years on and assisted at Veldhuis's medal ceremony.

"I'm now the fastest woman in the water -- long and short course," Veldhuis said. "It is fantastic to compete in front of a home crowd."

She later collected a bronze medal in the women's 4x100 medley relay behind Britain, who broke the four-minute barrier and lowered the European record to 3:59.33, and Russia.

Russia finished top of the medals table with 12 golds and brought the championships to a rousing close, winning the men's 4x100 medley relay from Croatia and Sweden in a European record 3:34.25.

Olympic bronze medalist Cseh won the 400 individual medley for the third time in a row, clocking 4:09.59 to shave 0.04 seconds from his own European mark and complete an Eindhoven 200 and 400 individual medley double.

"I was not really prepared for these championships and I'm a bit surprised about my performance. Whether it will be sufficient to beat (American Olympic and world champion) Michael Phelps, we will see in Beijing," he said.

(Editing by John Mehaffey)