Sporting Digest: Swimming

ALEXANDER POPOV, of Russia, set a men's 50 metres freestyle short- course world record of 21.50sec at a World Cup meeting in Desenzano, Italy, yesterday, beating the previous record of 21.60 set by Britain's Mark Foster at Sheffield, in February last year.

WORLD CUP SHORT-COURSE MEETING (Desenzano, It) Men: 50m freestyle: 1 A Popov (Rus) 21.50sec (world record); 2 M Foster (GB) 22.23; 3 I Rasch (Ger) 22.91. 50m backstroke: 1 Popov 24.66 (European best time); 2 V Selkov (Rus) 25.00; 3 V Nikolaychuk (Ukr) 25.98. 100m breaststroke: 1 A Djaburia (Ukr) 59.59; 2= V Ivanov (Rus), D Jarzyna (Pol) 1min 01.68sec; 3 A Cecchi (It) 1:01.69. 100m butterfly: 1 D Pankratov (Rus) 54.52; 2 A Luis (It) 54.76; 3 J Logdberg (Swe) 55.14. 200m freestyle: 1 V Pyshnenko (Rus) 1:47.18; 2 T Maeda (Japan) 1:48.27; 3 P Siciliano (It) 1:48.47. 200m backstroke: 1 Selkov 1:54.57; 2 S Battistelli (It) 1:56.99; 3 E Merisi (It) 1:57.05. 800m freestyle: 1 Siciliano 7:56.32; 2 I Wilson (GB) 7:58.22; 3 I Majcen (Sloven) 7:58.97. 200m individual medley: 1 C Keller (Ger) 1:59.51; 2 M Malinski (Pol) 1:59.54; 3 S Dorogov (Ukr) 2:01.01. Women: 50m breaststroke: 1 M Nackel (Ger) 32.62; 2 Guohong Dai (Ch) 32.81; 3 H Jaltner (Swe) 33.09. 50m butterfly: 1 M Jacobsen (Den) 27.81; 2 J Voitowitsch (Ger) 27.84; 3 K Nisenholtz (Arg) 28.38. 100m freestyle: 1 Jingyi Le (Ch) 54.22; 2 K Meissner (Ger) 55.96; 3 L Johncke (Swe) 56.10. 100m backstroke: 1 Xiuyu Bai (Ch) 59.49; 2 N Zhivanevskaya (Rus) 1:00.47; 3 S Volker (Ger) 1:00.79. 200m breaststroke: 1 Dai Guohong (Ch) 2:27.22; 2 A Kejzar (Sloven) 2:27.59; 3 E Donati (It) 2:28.54. 200m butterfly: 1 M Jacobsen (Den) 2:09.65; 2 I Tocchini (It) 2:12.07; 3 Y Lu (Ch) 2:12.41. 400m freestyle: 1 O Kirichenko (Rus) 4:11.05; 2 K Kielgass (Ger) 4:11.19; 3 C Seithe (Ger) 4:13.18. 100m individual medley: 1 U Jardfelt (Swe) 1:02.40; 2 B Vestergaard (Den) 1:03.60; 3 H Cerna (Cz Rep) 1:05.04. 400m individual medley: 1 B Vestergaard (Den) 4:37.93; 2 H Cerna (Cz Rep) 4:40.95; 3 D Shmeleva (Rus) 4:41.31.