Alain8217;s gold rush

France8217;s Alain Bernard won the 50m Men8217;s freestyle gold medal with a time of 21.66 seconds at the European Swimming Championships here today, a day after he set his third world record at the championships. He fell just short of grabbing his fourth in the finals.

He finished ahead of Croatia8217;s Duje Draganja, who finished in 22 seconds. Sweden8217;s Stefan Nystrand was third.

Federica Pellegrini set a world record in the women8217;s 400m freestyle. The Italian, fifth in the world championships last year, won in 4 minutes, 1.53 seconds, easily beating the old world mark of 4:02.13 set by Laure Manaudou of France.