Stephanie Rice and Emily Seebohm both set world records on the opening night of the Australian Olympic trials on Saturday. Rice demolished American Katie Hoff's 400 meters individual medley record while Seebohm broke Hayley McGregor's mark for 50 backstroke, an event not contested at the Olympics. The 19-year-old Rice established herself as the early favorite to win gold in Beijing when she stopped the clock at four minutes 31.46 seconds, slashing 1.43 off the previous record of 4:32.89, set by Hoff at last year's world championships in Melbourne. Seebohm, 15, came within 0.01 of breaking the world record during a schoolgirls meet in Brisbane earlier this month. McGregory broke the record a few days later but her mark only lasted 13 days. Despite breaking the record, Seebohm needs to finish either first or second in the 100 backstroke - an Olympic event - to make the team for Beijing. The two records overshadowed the performances of two of Australia's best-known swimmers, Grant Hackett and Libby Trickett (nee Lenton), who is competing for the first time under her married name. Hackett won the 400m freestyle in 3:43.15, his fastest time in three years. Craig Stevens finished second to secure his place in the team four years after he gave up his spot to his good friend Ian Thorpe, who stumbled at the blocks and was disqualified, and went on to win the gold. Trinkett posted the fastest time in the semifinals of the women's 100 butterfly, just ahead of Jessicah Schipper.Pellegrini disqualified In the Netherlands, Olympic silver medalist Frederica Pellegrini was disqualified in the heats of the women's 200-meter freestyle Saturday for a false start, and defending champion Laure Manaudou did not start at the European swimming championships. Manaudou, the world champion and record holder in the 200m free, left the championships to continue training for the Beijing Olympics. She won her second gold Friday night in the women's 800 freestyle relay after winning the 200 backstroke. Manaudou's absence left Pellegrini as favorite but the Italian was disqualified for her start in heat five. On Friday Alain Bernard shattered Pieter van den Hoogenband's 100m freestyle world record with a time of 47.60 seconds. Laure Manaudou led the French women's 800m freestyle relay team to victory - her second gold of the championships - and took silver in the 100 backstroke. Van den Hoogenband, the European and Olympic champion, was forced out of the morning's heats due to illness. Alessia Filippi won her second gold of the meet, adding the women's 800m freestyle title to the 400m individual medley she won on Tuesday. Erika Villaecija Garcia of Spain was second and Potec finished third. Mireia Belmonte Garcia won the women's 200m individual medley in a new championship record of 2:11.16. Evelyn Verraszto of Hungary was second and Camille Muffat of France was third. Grigory Falko of Russia set a new championship record of 2:09.64 to win the 200m breaststroke title. Ioannis Drymonakos of Greece set a new European record of 1:54.16 in the 200m butterfly. Former world champion Aristeidis Grigoriadis took Greece's second title of the night in the men's 50m backstroke in 25.13, edging Flori Lang of Switzerland by just 0.05. Lubos Krizko of Slovakia was third. __
