Swimming: Butterfly lifts Foster to another gold medal

Mark Foster took his second gold medal of the European Short Course Championships in Vienna yesterday, winning the 50 metres butterfly. The Essex-born 34-year-old came home in 23.35sec, beating Finland's Jere Hard by 0.03sec to add to his 50m freestyle win on Friday.

"A double gold medallist at the Europeans - what a way to end 2004," he said. "It's been a great week - being with the youngsters has been a pleasure and I hope they've taken something from me."

It was a remarkable double for the four-times Olympian, who also won both titles in Dublin a year ago. He ends the year on a high note after being left out of the Olympic squad.

Foster bounced back to win gold in the 50m freestyle and silver in the butterfly sprint at the World Short Course Championships in Indianapolis in October, before his double gold display in Vienna. Britain also won two silvers on the final day, Mel Marshall in the women's 200m freestyle and Sarah Price in the 200m backstroke.