Swimming: Silver the limit for Gillingham: British gold hopes dented as Hungarian comes out of shadows

NICK GILLINGHAM, the one Briton with the remotest chance of substantially boosting the nation's gold reserves this week, had that ambition devalued yesterday. A silver was all he could wrest from the 100 metres breaststroke at the European Swimming Championships, putting paid to an attempt on a gilt- edged double.

The 26-year-old from Birmingham had realistic hopes of priming himself for an attempt on a hat-trick of European 200m breaststroke victories on Friday by also taking the shorter event, but at Ponds Forge Pool here he was left in the water by a name that had almost disappeared from international reckoning.

Hungary's present had been discounted with the emigration of the world champion Norbert Rozsa to Australia, but no one had allowed for the past. Karoly Guttler, whose last race of note was his second place in this event in the 1988 Olympics, shook off the cobwebs and surprised everyone with two swims of his and anyone else's life.

In the morning heats he broke the world record by 0.34sec with 1min 00.59sec and coupled that with the second fastest time in history in the evening. Gillingham countered with a record of his own, the best 50m start he has ever done, but even then he was nearly a yard down at the turn. At the end the field had the same hang-dog expression beloved of Formula One teams lapped by Williams.

'I knew I couldn't let Karoly get too far ahead so I went out as fast as I could,' Gillingham said. 'In a sense I was swimming the race back to front. To get a world record I knew I'd have to turn in 28 something.' Instead he reached half-way in 29.31sec compared with Guttler's 28.43.

As to how Guttler, a 25-year- old Budapest student, upped his water speed from the medium- fast that was not good enough to make the Olympic final 11 months ago to yesterday's blistering pace, even he seemed bemused. 'Everything went right, I'm lucky,' he said before suggesting he had been over-awed by Rozsa's presence in the past.

Gillingham, who also trailed Rozsa when he collected his 200m bronze in Barcelona, had every reason to feel disappointed but also drew encouragement. 'This is my best result in the 100m,' he said. 'I'm excited about Friday. The 200 is my best event. I feel I'm more in control over the longer distance.'

Which is not how Karen Pickering would describe the women's 100m freestyle. The 21-year- old from Ipswich was the third- ranked competitor when she started the heats but ended them with the sixth-fastest qualifying time and could not improve on her position in the final.

The gold medal was always likely to end round the neck of Franziska van Almsick, but Pickering had hopes of ending on the rostrum beside the German 15-year-old. Instead she was overwhelmed at the start, turning in seventh place. Van Almsick clocked 54.57sec to add a European record to the world short-course marks she has been setting in the winter.

Pickering made amends in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay, where she anchored a quartet also comprising Sarah Harcastle, Deborah Armitage and Claire Huddart to a bronze, the first time Britain's women have won a European Championship medal in this event.

The time, a British record of 8min 11.11sec, also gave Hardcastle her first international medal since she returned after a six-year retirement. The 1984 Olympic silver medallist begins her individual campaign in the 400m freestyle tomorrow.

Gold in the relay went to Germany, giving Van Almsick a second victory and edging her ahead of Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi, winner of the 400m individual medley, in the race to remove the largest amount of bullion from Sheffield. That contest is likely to be the only one to trouble either this week.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 31