The time did not threaten Natalie Coughlin's 56.51sec world record but Laure Manaudou (FRA) kept her ambition of rivalling the American for gold in Beijing alive with a European record of 57.34 over 100m backstroke at the European s/c championships in Debrecen.

The standard had stood at 57.75 to Ilona Hlavackova (CZE) since 2001. Coughlin's world record of 56.51 in Singapore last month came off a split of 27.54, and that's where the Europeans missed the mark: Sanja Jovanovic (CRO) turned first in 27.96, to Manaudou's 28.09. The fastest middle distance freestyler in the world then hit back - and how. Her time is second-fastest all time. Third place in Debrecen went to Janine Pietsch (GER), on 58.15.

Not a bad effort, you might say, by the 21-year-old Croatian, who last short-course season sported a best time of 1:00.72 and arrived in Hungary with a best time of 59.51, before making a staggering leap forward to a 57.94 silver medal. The fourth woman inside 58sec, Jovanovic now sits at 11th on the all-time performances list headed by four times by Coughlin, among six entries by the America. Manaudou has three entries and Hlavackova one.

Croatian swimming was left with egg on its faces this week when FINA provisionally suspended Marko Strahija (CRO) after the backstroke specialist tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in an out-of-competition test on November 8.