Sebastien Rouault of France wins second European gold in 800-meter freestyle

Rouault adds 800m freestyle title at Europeans

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Sebastien Rouault of France won the men’s 800-meter freestyle at the European swimming championships on Friday, his second gold medal of the event.

Rouault led during the middle of the race but then fell behind Germany’s Christian Kubusch until the last of the 16 laps, when he was able to overtake his rival to finish the race in 7 minutes, 48.28 seconds, a new meet record.

Kubusch was 0.84 back in second, but still set a new German record with his effort. Samuel Pizzetti of Italy was third.

Rouault admitted later he had felt a “bit tired” after winning the 1,500 freestyle on Wednesday and finishing fifth in the 400 free on Monday.

France’s Alain Bernard won the 100 freestyle, the closest race of the meet so far. Bernard touched in 48.49 seconds, just 0.03 seconds faster than Russia’s Evgeny Lagunov and 0.07 seconds ahead of France’s William Meynard.

“I was very strained during the heats and the semifinals and surprisingly not at all before this final,” said Bernard, who holds the European record of 47.12 seconds and finished behind Lagunov in the last qualifier. “To win the race you also need a certain luck.”

Anastasia Chaun of Russia set a new meet record in the women’s 200 breaststroke, finishing in 2:23.50. Sara Nordenstam of Norway trailed by 0.92 seconds and Rikke Moeller-Pedersen of Denmark was third, 1.49 seconds slower than Chaun.

In the women’s 100 butterfly, world record holder Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden swam the fastest second lap of the race and rallied to win in 57.32 seconds, 0.08 seconds in front of Francesca Halsall of Britain. Another Swede, Therese Alshammar, was third 0.48 seconds behind the winner.