A total of four Swedes advanced from Tuesday morning's attempt at the EC in Rome.

Sophie Hansson says that it was emotional in the stands when older sister Louise, 25, won European Championship gold in the 100 meter butterfly on Monday evening.

- I start to cry just thinking about it.

I dropped the occasional toe on the stand.

She deserves it more than anyone else, said Sophie, 24, who swam 30.80 in the trials - barely half a second off her personal best.

Sophie Hansson has had a tough time so far, unable to defend her European Championship gold but finishing sixth in the 100m breaststroke and bowing out of the semi-finals of the double distance after being four seconds off her personal best in the trials.

- It was a very difficult decision to make.

But it was really what I needed at the time to get through this week, she says.

Hope for finals

She thought the trial swim was good once she got up to speed.

- I was still under 31 seconds and that's good considering where I am right now.

It will be fun with the semi-finals tonight.

It is probably necessary to go down a tenth for the final, she says.

Klara Thormalm made it to her third semifinal in breaststroke this EC with twelfth time, 31.43.

Arianna Castiglioni, Italy, was fastest with 29.91.

Olympic swimmer Björn Seeliger, who was part of the bronze medal team in Monday night's mixed team race, also took seventh place in the 50-meter free trials with 22.13.

"A bit half-baked"

Seeliger has swum several 100-meter races at the European Championships, both individually and as a team, and performed better and better after reaching the semi-finals individually.

But it left a mark on 50.

- I felt like a 100-meter swimmer.

I tried to relax, but it was a bit half-assed and I tense up, says Seeliger, who was just over four tenths above his personal best.

-Hopefully it can go faster tonight.

William Lulek also advanced and had a 15th time in the 200 meter medley, 2.04.29.

On the other hand, the mixed team in the 4x200 meters had a clear pole and finished ninth, 29 hundredths from a final in which Denmark took eighth and last place.

Victor Johansson (1.49.32), Robin Hanson (1.50.14), Sofia Åstedt (2.03.53) and Hanna Berman (2.04.66) had a final time of 7.47.65.