The fastest man in water was pipped to the gold in the final stroke by Sweden’s Olympic champion Lars Frolander.Ian Edmond fought courageously to win silver in the 200m breaststroke. In a close-fought race, the 23-year-old Scot was denied gold by 0.24sec, and is now just 0.12sec shy of Nick Gillingham’s British record set in 1993.It was Edmond’s first senior international medal and helped erase the bitter memory of the world championships last July, where he was disqualified in the semi-final for a faulty leg kick coming out of the turn “I’m disappointed to come second,” he said. “I thought I could have won.”To cap a terrific day for the Scots, with a performance of great personal triumph, Gregor Tait, Edmond’s Edinburgh team-mate, broke his own British record in a tough final of the 100m backstroke to record 52.90 for bronze.Heidi Earp came from a long way down at the half-way mark to win bronze in the 100m breaststroke, her strength in the final 25 metres carrying her to the rostrum after a slow start.After a quiet weekend, the multiple Olympic champion Pieter Van den Hoogenband burst into life in the 200m freestyle. Chasing the oldest men’s European record in the books, the Dutchman stormed to the finish to smash Georgio Lamberti’s 11-year-old record, recording an awesome 1.42.46.Robin Francis won DM3000 (£960) as the outstanding newcomer of the meet to underline what has been a highly successful weekend both for the championships, with five world and 13 European records, and the British team. Without sending a full-strength squad, their two gold, six silver and five bronze medals – with 15 British records – continues the resurgence of British swimming under the guidance of their Australian performance director, Bill Sweetenham.Typically though, he was not satisfied. “I’m happy with the records and with where we’re heading, but we have to get a lot tougher the final 10 metres of races, where we are still too soft,” he said. “And I’m anxious that we have lost our way with the club system.

There are just not enough Robin Francises coming through the system.”. Sonja Nef registered yet another World Cup giant slalom victory in Val d’Is? yesterday. The Swiss reigning world champion finished 0.66sec ahead of Sweden’s Anja Paerson, with Michaela Dorfmeister trailing in third. She dedicated the victory to her team-mate Silvano Beltrametti, who was paralysed in a crash on the same piste a week ago.”It was awful to go on the piste and see the spot where he fell,” Nef said. “We thought about it a lot before the race but not during the race proper. In any case, it will take a long, long time to get over what happened to him.”Paerson was happy to follow up victory in the slalom at Sestrieres less than a week ago with another good result “I’ve had great training for this season,” she said. “I had a good coach – my father.”Nef is a firm favourite to retain her world title but two former winners failed to finish.

Croatia’s Janica Kostelic, who returned from injury a week ago, fell, while Renate Goetschl, a winner in 2000, caught her ski on a gate pole.The Frenchman Frederic Covili extended his lead at the top of the men’s giant slalom standings with victory in Alta Badia, Italy. Covili beat the defending world champion, Michael Von Gr?en, of Switzerland with a time of 2min 40.58sec.Sami Uotila of Finland managed a career-best finish of third place, while the first-run leader Bode Miller crashed out. It was Covili’s second win in three World Cup races this season and he now has a commanding lead over Von Gr?en in the overall standings.The Austrian Stephan Eberharter finished ninth following his downhill win on Saturday in Val Gardena, and he retains his lead in the World Cup standings.It was Eberharter’s third World Cup win in nine days. He beat his compatriot Michael Walchhofer by 0.22secs with the veteran Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt third.It was a disappointing day for Italy’s Kristian Ghedina, winner of the first of the downhills on Friday. Ghedina was aiming to become the first man to record five victories at Val Gardena but had to settle for fourth place, 0.32 seconds behind Eberharter.. Reading maintained their six-point lead at the top of the Premier Division with a 4-3 win away to Loughborough Students.

Guildford’s substitute Adrian Wilkinson came off a sick bed to complete a well-taken hat-trick with a last minute goal. His shot appeared to catch the England goalkeeper Jimi Lewis by surprise – the ball finding its way between his pads.Struggling Southgate were off to a good start with a second-minute goal from their captain, Jon Peckett, at Chigwell only to be pegged back by a penalty corner goal from Ian Morrison just before the interval.Old Loughtonians played most of the second half with 10 men following the suspension of the Australian Steve Carter in the 40th minute. Carter was shown the yellow-card for retaliation by the umpire Neil Smith who then turned the suspension into a permanent red card after the Australian threatened to “get” the Southgate player after the game.In the remaining game Canterbury won 4-3 away to Teddington with all their goals coming in a six-minute blitz early in the second half.. The Olympian Guin Batten led her second Great Britain heavyweight women’s sculling ranking in a row on Saturday, at the trial in Boston for the national rowing squad and any hopefuls wishing to join them. Batten was victorious over her fellow international Frances Houghton by three-quarters of a second, while James Cracknell held off Ian Lawson to win the heavyweight men’s sculling trial. Meanwhile at the lightweight trials yesterday, Tim Male maintained his top-rank position, while Tracy Langlands pushed Helen Casey into second place.