For the third successive day, Frenchfootball fans will have to turn to page five of L’Équipe before they get to the first mention of the beautiful game. The big hero dominating the early pages is Alain Bernard, the Nasa-suited muscle man of sprint swimming who has powered his way to three world records in as many days at the European Championships here. Last night, the 24-year-old from

Marseilles recorded 21.50sec in the semi-finals of the 50 metres freestyle, shaving 0.06 seconds off the previous world mark set by Eamon Sullivan, of Australia, last month.

On Friday, Bernard ushered in a new era of sprinting in the pool with a world record of 47.60 in the 100 metres freestyle semi-finals before slicing a further 0.1sec off the mark to claim the European crown in 47.50 on Saturday evening. His 22.53 split at half-way — feet on the wall at the turn — would have challenged for the bronze medal in the individual 50 metres at almost all championships since the one-lap dash was introduced in 1983.

“I had an excellent start . . . then I thought I had to exploit my fantastic shape here in Eindhoven and put all my power on at 35 metres,” he said. If the Frenchman’s physique — 7 kilogrammes (15lb 4oz) of visible muscle added in little more than a year — has helped to catapult him from a man incapable of making the World Championships final a year ago to one who has destroyed world-class rivals around him here, then the suit he is wearing is just as evident.

Bernard’s 50 metres effort was the eleventh world record to be set since February 16. All of those new standards have one thing in common: the record-breaker was wearing the Speedo LZR Racer suit, which was developed in partnership with Nasa and has no stitching, only bonded joints that have borrowed technology from the Space Shuttle.

Fina, the world governing body, approved the suit last year, but has called Speedo to a meeting in Manchester next month during the World Short-course Championships to discuss how to address the concerns of coaches and swimmers, who believe it may contravene rules that preclude the wearing of “technical equipment” that enhances performance.

One leading coach to a world champion who does not have access to the suit because of a contractual deal with a rival suit-maker, said: “There can be no question that this suit is dividing the world into the haves and the have-nots. It’s $800 \ a shot. There is not a single swimmer who comes out of the water without saying ‘wow, I never felt like that before.’”

Speedo maintains that it is “not the suit on the swimmer but the swimmer in the suit” that counts most, but, statistically, the extraordinary run of world records set since the suit’s first appearance in competition in mid-February appears to indicate that the LZR Racer is contributing significantly to speed.

Among those joining the chorus of dissent last night was Jacco Verhaeren, coach to Pieter van den Hoogenband, whose world 100 metres record Bernard broke. “We test for doping to avoid an unlevel playing field,” he said. “If this suit creates unfairness, then we should have more tests done.”

Where Bernard is concerned, the discussion stretches beyond the suit. He won the 100 metres by almost a second, a margin almost unheard of in swimming history in a race in which 0.3sec or less often splits. “I drink water — that’s it,” the Frenchman said. He is not alone in making progress: nine European records have fallen here, including Bernard’s three world records and a 3min 33.65sec effort by the Dutch women’s 4 x 100 metres freestyle quartet.

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