Bernard sets 100-freestyle record again

Alain Bernard broke the 100-meter freestyle record for the second time in as many days Saturday, clocking 47.50 seconds at the European swimming championships at Eindhoven, Netherlands, to win his first major title.

In Friday’s semifinals, the Frenchman swam 47.60 to shatter the world record that Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband set at the 2000 Sydney Games.

On Saturday, he beat a powerful field that included world champion Filippo Magnini of Italy and world short-course record holder Stefan Nystrand of Sweden, swimming the first 50 in 22.53 and coming home in 24.97.

Van den Hoogenband was forced out of the championships in his home pool because of a stomach virus.

Nystrand was second, nearly a second slower than Bernard in 48.40, and Magnini was third in 48.53.

Stephanie Rice broke the world record in the 400-meter individual medley at the Australian championships and Olympic trials at Sydney, finishing in a time of 4 minutes 31.46 seconds. That took 1.43 seconds off American Katie Hoff’s mark of 4:32.89 set at last year’s world championships in Melbourne.

One day after winning her first title in the 100-yard breaststroke, USC junior Rebecca Soni became just the third woman ever to win the 200-yard breaststroke three years in a row, touching in 2:06.32 at the NCAA Division I championships at Columbus, Ohio.

Arizona, meanwhile, won its first national title. The Wildcats used five relay titles and two individual wins over the three-day event to amass 484 points. Two-time defending champion Auburn was second with 348. Stanford was third with 343.

The Kenyon men’s team won its 29th consecutive NCAA Division III championship Saturday. It finished with 635 points at Oxford, Ohio.

MOTOR RACING

Wimmer ends long Nationwide drought

Scott Wimmer passed Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer with 21 laps to go and held on to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Wimmer’s Chevrolet edged Bowyer’s by 0.578 of a second for his sixth victory in 149 Nationwide Series starts and first since 2003.

Bowyer took the series points lead from Kevin Harvick, who skipped the race.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were penalized five grid places for impeding other drivers during qualifying for today’s Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. Ferrari, meanwhile, took the top two spots with Felipe Massa getting the pole ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

An investigation by race stewards found McLaren guilty of interference. Kovalainen qualified third and Hamilton fourth, but the penalty moves them to eighth and ninth, respectively.

The penalty came after BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Fernando Alonso were impeded during the closing seconds of qualifying. Heidfeld, who qualified seventh, will start fifth. Alonso, who qualified ninth, will start seventh.

WINTER SPORTS

Vonn, Cochran win U.S. slalom titles

Lindsey Vonn, the overall women’s World Cup champion, and Jimmy Cochran won slalom titles at the U.S. Alpine championships at Carrabassett Valley, Maine.

Vonn led both runs to win the event with a combined time of 1 minute 26.31 seconds for her first win at Sugarloaf. Hailey Duke was second in 1:28.21 and Jenny Lathrop finished third in 1:28.42.

Cochran successfully defended his title with a combined time of 1:26.69, with Cody Marshall (1:27.90) second and Tim Jitloff (1:28.16) third.

Other events to be run during the five-day championships include the downhill, super-G and giant slalom.

Sasha Rearick was named men’s U.S. Alpine coach, replacing Phil McNichol, who announced his retirement last week during the World Cup finals. Rearick was the men’s slalom and giant slalom coach.

FIGURE SKATING

Buttle beats Joubert, Weir for world title

Jeffrey Buttle won the men’s title at the world championships in Goteborg, Sweden, holding off defending champion Brian Joubert of France and American Johnny Weir. He is the first Canadian man to win the world title since Elvis Stojko in 1997.

Buttle won the long program to earn 163.07 points, giving him a final total of 245.17, well ahead of Joubert (231.22) and Weir (221.84).

SOCCER

Keegan finally wins with Newcastle again

Newcastle won for the first time since Kevin Keegan returned as manager, defeating visiting Fulham, 2-0, in the English Premier League behind goals by Mark Viduka and Michael Owen.

The Magpies ended a winless streak (0-6-3) dating to Jan. 16, the day they announced Keegan would return as manager. He first managed them from 1992 to 1997.