Eindhoven: Alain Bernard snatched the 100 metres freestyle world record from Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband at the Dutchman’s home pool in the European swimming championships on Friday.

The 24-year old Frenchman clocked 47.60 seconds in the 100 semi-finals to beat the 47.84 mark Van den Hoogenband set in the semi-finals of the Sydney Olympics in September, 2000, on the way to the first of his two Olympic 100 freestyle titles.

In Sydney, Stephanie Rice and Emily Seebohm both set world records on the opening night of the Australian Olympic trials on Saturday.

Rice demolished American Katie Hoff’s 400 metres individual medley record while Seebohm broke Hayley McGregor’s mark for 50 backstroke, an event not contested at the Olympics. (Reuters)