time Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband was eliminated from the 200-meter freestyle in the heats Wednesday at the European Swimming Championships, and illness could keep out of the rest of the event. Van den Hoogenband won the 200m freestyle at the Sydney Games and is a two-time Olympic winner over 100m, but he came into these championships saying he was only 80 percent fit as he builds toward his final Olympics in Beijing. He said after Wednesday's heats he had been feeling nauseous and was not fit to compete. “This is a terrible disappointment here at my home pool,” Van den Hoogenband said. “I had even considered to withdraw from the 200 free,” he added. “I didn't feel well at all yesterday during the 400 freestyle relay.” Netherlands coach Jacco Verhaeren said the race was “one of Pieter's worst I ever saw” and added that Van den Hoogenband will not swim again unless he is fit. The Netherlands set a world record in the women's 400-meter freestyle relay Tuesday with a time of 3 minutes, 33.62 seconds. The Dutch team made up of Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis led throughout the race in front of a raucous home crowd, and easily beat the old mark of 3:35.22 set two years ago by Germany. Italy was second in 3:41.06 while Sweden was third in 3:41.28. In the evening's final race, Sweden won the men's 400m freestyle relay in 3:15.41 ahead of Italy. The Netherlands, with two-time Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband swimming the final leg, was third. The Swedish team included Stefan Nystrand, who holds the short-course world record over 100 meters, as well as Marcus Piehl, Petter Stymne and Jonas Persson. The two individual finals of the night both had familiar winners. Yury Prilukov of Russia successfully defended his European 400-meter freestyle title, charging past Massimiliano Rosolino in the final lap of the pool to touch in 3:45.10, a new championship record. Rosolino led for most of the race but the 29-year-old Italian faded to second in 3:45.19 as Prilukov powered to a 26.77-second final lap. Alessia Filippi of Italy went one better than Rosolino to retain her European 400 individual medley title in a time of 4:36.68. Katinka Hosszu of Hungary claimed silver in 4:37.43 and Martynova ended third in 4:37.86. __
