Smashing finale for VDH

Mark Veens, Johan Kenkhuis, Gijs Damen and van den Hoogenband clocked one minute 25.55 seconds to beat the 1:25.87 mark set by Aaron Ciarla, Nate Dusing, Neil Walker and Jason Lezak of the United States at East Meadow, New York, on October 20, 2001

Sweden took the lead before the final exchange before VDH powered the Dutch with a phenomenal final swim.

The race came just a few minutes after he smashed his own European record in the 200m freestyle.

He hurtled through the first 100 metres inside Ian Thorpe's world record pace and, although the Dutchman could not sustain that level, hit the wall in one minute 41.89 seconds to beat the mark of 1:42.45 he set on January 26 this year in Berlin.

Thorpe's world record is 1:41.10.

The Dutchman, who had come close to a 100 metres freestyle world record on Saturday, left his rivals far behind. Kvetoslav Svoboda of the Czech Republic took the silver in 1:44.56 and Lithuania's Saulius Binevicius the bronze in 1:45.09.

Van den Hoogenband won the 100 freestyle in 46.81 seconds, 0.07 seconds short of the world mark set in 1994 by Russia's Alexander Popov, whom he toppled as Olympic champion in 2000.

Germany's Antje Buschschulte, who retained her 100 metres backstroke title on Friday, set a European record of 2:04.23 to win her second gold of the meeting in the 200 backstroke as she beat the 2:04.44 set by Briton Sarah Price in Australia in 2001.

Price, the defending champion, set the pace for the first 100 metres but finished fourth behind Buschschulte, Russia's Stanislava Komarova and Ukraine's Iryna Amshennikova.

However, Mark Foster won his second gold medal of the championships and brought Britain their seventh title of the four-day meeting - even with Germany - when he won the 50 metres butterfly crown.