DEBRECEN (Hungary), Dec 14: Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak set world records on the opening day of the European short-course swimming championships on Thursday.

Jedrzejczak, the Olympic 200 metres butterfly champion, smashed her own world record by more than one second to clock two minutes 3:53 seconds.

The Pole, who celebrated her 24th birthday on Thursday, stayed back early in the race and made her first turn in sixth place before slowly moving away from her competitors.

Cseh took the lead in the men’s 200 metres individual medley from the gun and won in a world record time of 1:52.99, despite letting up and coasting the final 25 metres.

The record came as no surprise to Cseh, who predicted his time to the hundredth of a second ahead of the race.In the 50 metres freestyle, world record holder Stefan Nystrand of Sweden did not give the field a chance and won easily.

Austria’s Markus Rogan, a twice silver medallist at the 2004 Athens Games, dominated the men’s 200 backstroke and won in a European record of 1:49:86, a good three to four metres clear of the field.

Results:

Men:

50 Freestyle: 1 Stefan Nystrand (Sweden) 21.11 seconds; 2 Duje Draganja (Croatia) 21.23; 3 Alain Bernard (France) 21.57; 4 Petter Stymne (Sweden) 21.60; 5 Steffen Deibler (Germany) 21.83; 6 Sergey Fesikov (Russia) 21.96; 7 David Maitre (France) 21.97; 8 Matti Rajakylae (Finland) 22.03.

200 Backstroke: 1 Markus Rogan (Austria) 1:49.86 (European record); 2 Stanislav Donets (Russia) 1:51.94; 3 Aschwin Wildeboer Faber (Spain) 1:52.12; 4 Pierre Roger (France) 1:52.72; 5 Benjamin Stasiulis (France) 1:53.08; 6 Sebastian Stoss (Austria) 1:53.99; 7 Helge Meeuw (Germany) 1:55.05; 8, Stefan Herbst (Germany) 1:55.81.

200 Individual Medley: 1 Laszlo Cseh (Hungary) 1:52.99 (world record); 2 Sasa Impric (Croatia) 1:57.48; 3 Alexander Tikhonov (Russia) 1:57.59; 4 Diogo Filipe Carvalho (Portugal) 1:57.99; 5 Martin Liivamagi (Estonia) 1:58.11; 6 Alessio Boggiatto (Italy) 1:58.24; 7 Alexey Zatsepin (Russia) 1:58.37; 8 Erik Samuelsson

(Sweden) 2:00.35.

400 Freestyle: 1 Pawel Korzeniowski (Poland) 3:38.72; 2 Paul Biedermann (Germany) 3:38.76; 3 Gergo Kis (Hungary) 3:39.52; 4 Federico Colbertaldo (Italy) 3:40.83; 5 Przemyslaw Stanczyk (Poland) 3:410.63; 6 Massimiliano Rosolino 3:42.34; 7 Vitaly Romanovich (Russia) 3:43.96; 8 Dominik Koll (Austria) 3:44.49.

4x50 Medley: 1 Germany 1:34.39; 2 Russia 1:34.99; 3 Netherlands 1:35.35; 4 Spain 1:35.60; 5 Ukraine 1:35.66; 6 Sweden 1:36.72; 7 Finland 1:36.98; 8 Israel 1:37.18.

Women:

50 Breaststroke: 1 Yuliya Efimova (Russia) 30.33. (tie), Janne Schaefer, (Germany) 30.33; 3 Sarah Poewe (Germany) 30.80; 4 Mirna Jukic (Austria) 30.90; 5 Katja Lehtonen (Finland) 31.21; 6 Elena Bogomazova (Russia) 31.27; 7 Angeliki Exarchou (Greece) 31.40; 8 Hanna Westrin (Sweden) disqualified.

200 Butterfly: 1 Otylia Jedrzejczak (Poland) 2:03.53 (world record); 2 Emese Kovacs (Hungary) 2:05.41; 3 Annika Mehlhorn (Germany) 2:06.53; 4 Terri Dunning (Britain) 2:06.54; 5 Beatrix Boulsevicz (Hungary) 2:07.58; 6 Aurore Mongel (France) 2:07.94; 7 Mireia Belmonte Garcia (Spain); 8 Cassandra Patten (Britain) 2:08.56.

200 Medley: 1 Camille Muffat (France) 2:09.05; 2 Katarzyna Baranowska (Poland) 2:09.25; 3 Evelyn Verraszto (Hungary) 2:09.83; 4 Katinka Hosszu (Hungary) 2:09.99; 5 Sophie De Ronchi (France) 2:10.44; 6 Aleksandra Urbanczyk (Poland) 2:10.68; 7 Julie HjorthHansen (Denmark) 2:10.78; 8 Nicole Hetzer (Germany) 2:11.74.—Agencies