Frenchman Alain Bernard snatched the 100 metres freestyle world record from Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband in the Dutchman’s home pool at the European swimming championships on Friday. Bernard clocked 47.60 seconds in the 100 semi-finals to beat the 47.84 mark Van den Hoogenband set in the semi-finals of the Sydney Games on September 19, 2000. Van den Hoogenband pulled out of the morning’s heats, having been ill during the week. Bernard turned at the 50-metre mark in 22.88, well inside Van den Hoogenband’s world record split of 23.16, and hurtled down the return length to cut 0.24 seconds off the world mark.
