time Olympic champion Yana Klochkova failed to qualify Tuesday for the final of the women's 400-meter individual medley on the opening day of the European swimming championships. The 25-year-old Ukrainian, who won the 200m and 400m individual medley at both the Sydney and Athens Olympics, finished her heat in 4 minutes, 50.36 seconds - 17 seconds slower than her own European record and 12th overall. Klochkova took a break from training after Athens and is working her way back to full fitness for the Beijing Olympics. Yana Martynova of Russia qualified fastest for the evening final with a time of 4:40.47. Alessia Filippi of Italy was second in 4:42.80 and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary was third in 4:42.86 at the National Swimming Center, where many top swimmers are treating the meet as a preparation for the Beijing Olympics. Pawel Korzeniowski qualified fastest for the final of the men's 400-meter freestyle final with 3:47.70, more than a second faster than defending champion Yury Prilukov of Russia. Dragos Coman of Romania was third fastest in 3:49.02. In the women's 50-meter butterfly heats, Inge Dekker led a 1-2-3 finish for the Netherlands with her time of 25.89. She was followed by Chantal Groot in 26.39 and Hinkelien Schreuder in 26.59. World record holder Therese Alshammar was fourth while her Swedish countrywoman and defending champion Anna-Karin Kammerling withdrew from the heats because she was suffering from a fever. Reigning European 50m backstroke champion Janine Pietsch of Germany and Esther Baron of France, who won the 200m backstroke title two years ago, also pulled out of the championships. Organizers did not give the reasons for their withdrawals. Janine Pietsch (50m backstroke/Germany) and Esther Baron (200m back/France), the 2006 title holders, have withdrawn. Aristeidis Grigoriadis of Greece qualified fastest for the semifinals of the men's 100-meter backstroke in 54.81, ahead of Guy Barnea of Israel and Liam Tancock of Britain. Russian defending champion Arkady Vyatchanin qualified in 12th place in 55.62. Alexander Dale Oen of Norway broke the six-year-old championship record in qualifying for the semifinals of the men's 100-meter breaststroke in 1:00.11. Oleg Lisagor set the previous championship record of 1:00.29 at Berlin in 2002. Hugues Duboscq of France was second and Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine was third. In the women's 200m backstroke, Stanislava Komarova of Russia was fastest in the morning heats with a time of 2:11.27, ahead of two Hungarians, Nikolatt Szepesi and Evelyn Verraszto. Laure Manaudou of France qualified in 2:12.50. Defending champion Sergiy Breus of Ukraine easily advanced for the semifinals of the men's 50m butterfly, finishing in third place in the heats. Milorad Cavic of Serbia was fastest in 23.81 and Jakob Andkjaer of Denmark was second. The Netherlands women set the fastest qualifying time of 3:37.68 for the final of the 400m freestyle relay, ahead of Italy and Sweden. Germany, which set a world record of 3:35.22 at the last European championships in Budapest two years ago, did not enter a team as most of the country's top swimmers are skipping this meet to prepare for their Olympic trials in three weeks. In the men's 400m freestyle relay, Russia was first, the Netherlands second and Sweden third ahead of the final later Tuesday. __
