2 World Swim Records Broken : Italian, Briton Top Times in Freestyle, Breast Stroke

Giorgio Lamberti of Italy and Britain’s Adrian Moorhouse set world records at the European Swimming Championships today.

Lamberti set his mark in the men’s 200-meter freestyle, clocking one minute, 46.69 seconds to win the gold medal.

Broke the Mark

Moorhouse broke the mark in the 100-meter breast stroke with a time of one minute, 1.49 seconds in a qualifying heat.

Lamberti beat the record of 1:47.25 set by Duncan Armstrong of Australia at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Moorhouse later won the gold medal in the final but failed to lower the record.

The old mark, 1:01.65, was set by American Steve Lundquist in winning a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Soviet Dmitry Volkov was leading at the 50-meter mark, but Moorhouse powered through the last half of the race to set the record and finish .37 ahead of Volkov.

The Soviet was timed in 1:01.86.

After his performance, Moorhouse said he went into the heat aiming to break Lundquist’s record.

‘I Will Swim Even Faster’

“My time was not a surprise,” Moorhouse said. “I wanted to swim a new world record in the prelims. I did. Tonight in the finals I will swim even faster.”

Moorhouse’s British teammate, Nick Gillingham, turned in a respectable 1:02.79 for third place.

The world record time cut nearly two seconds off Moorhouse’s previous best this year of 1:03.31.