Three Gold Medals for Dutch Swimmer at Ireland Championships - 2003-12-15

On Sunday, the final day of the four-day European Short Course Swimming Championships in Dublin, Ireland, Pieter van den Hoogenband led the Dutch 4x200 meter freestyle relay team to a world record. Van den Hoogenband, a two-time Olympic champion, along with his teammates Mark Voss, Johan Kenkhuis, and Gies Dammen, completed the 200-meter relay in a time of 1 minute and 22.55 seconds, breaking the previous short course record of 1 minute and 25.87 seconds set by the U.S. relay team in October 2001. Pieter van den Hoogenband, who won three gold medals at the Dublin championships, also set a new European record on Sunday with a time of 1 minute and 41.89 seconds in the 200-meter freestyle, which was 0.56 seconds faster than his previous record achieved in January. In the women's 200-meter backstroke event in Dublin, Antje Buschschulte from Germany set a new European record with a time of 2 minutes and 4.23 seconds, surpassing the previous record held by Sarah Price from Britain since August 2001. Price participated in the competition on Sunday and finished fourth. Stanislava Komarova from Russia won the silver medal, while Irina Amshennikova from Ukraine took home the bronze.