BEIJING – Paolo Bossini of Italy has set an European record in the 200 metres breaststroke preliminaries at the Beijing Olympics.

He won his heat Tuesday night in 2:08.98 (29.71, 1:02.60, 1:35.43) seconds, lowering the old mark of 2:09.52 set by Dimitri Komornikov of Russia at the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.