France's Laure Manaudou qualified for her third event at the Beijing Olympics when she won the 200 metres backstroke final in two minutes 6.64 seconds at the French trials.

Manaudou had earlier qualified for the 400 metres freestyle and the 100 metres backstroke. She pulled out of the 200 metres freestyle and will not enter that event, for which she holds the world record, at August's Olympics.

Alain Bernard, meanwhile, secured an Olympic berth in the 50 metres freestyle but lost his European record to Amaury Leveaux.

Leveaux was a surprise winner in 21.38 seconds, just outside the world record of 21.28 set by Australian Eamon Sullivan last month.

Bernard, who held the previous European record of 20.50, qualified in second place in 21.69 but survived a fright with Frederic Bousquet very close in third place in 21.72.

Only the top two from the finals qualify for individual events.

Bernard, the world 100 metres record holder, will swim both sprints in Beijing as well as the 4x100 relay, for which France promise to be title contenders.

He won Thursday's 100 metres final at the French trials in 47.82 seconds, 0.32 seconds outside the world record of 47.50 he set at the European championships in Eindhoven on March 22.

The Olympics run from August 8-24.

Reuters