Three new world records were set Sunday, bringing the number of new marks achieved at the European short-course swimming championships here this week to 10, as the era of the high-tech swimsuit drew to a close on the final day of competition. Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin and Stanislav Donets both broke the men's 100m backstroke world record, wearing the polyurethane suits that will be banned by swimming's world governing body FINA on Jan. 1. The pair both clocked 48.97sec to better Vyatchanin's previous mark of 49.17 set at the same meet here on Dec. 12. Italy's Federica Pellegrini set a new world record of 1min 51.17sec in the 200m freestyle as she beat her own previous mark of 1:51.85 from December 14 last year at the same championships in Rijeka, Croatia. And Daniel Gyurta of Hungary set a new world record of 2min 00.67sec in the 200m men's breaststroke. Gyurta lowered the previous mark of 2:01.98 set by Australia's Christian Sprenger on August 10 at Hobart. The Inge Dekker-powered Netherlands topped the medals table over the four days of competition with a total of 14 - including ten golds. Dekker won three titles - 50m and 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle. Russia was second with 21 medals, including eight golds, with France third with 11 medals, including six golds. Credited with helping set 245 world records since February 2008, the era of the high-tech suit comes to a close in Istanbul, where the they were first seen in 1999 during the same competition. At last year's European championships in Rijeka, 10 world records were also broken. Phelps wins In Maryland, Michael Phelps won the 200-yard butterfly Sunday, giving the 14-time Olympic champion five first-place finishes in five events at the three-day North Baltimore Aquatic Center's Christmas meet at the US Naval Academy. Phelps, swimming for the host NBAC, finished in 1 minute, 42.29 seconds, nearly 3 seconds ahead of Todd Patrick. “I'm not where I need to be in terms of my fitness, but then I knew coming in that I have a lot to do to be in the best shape to swim the times I want to swim. But this was a stepping stone to that,” Phelps said. “I swam three-quarters of two real good 200s (in the freestyle and butterfly) and in the 400 IM, I was happy with that.” During the meet's first two days, Phelps won the 100 backstroke, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 400 individual medley. He had also been scheduled to swim in the 100 freestyle Sunday and swam it in preliminaries, but skipped the final to concentrate on the 200 fly. The two events were 22 minutes apart.
