Relieved Steffen books London berth at trials

Olympic 50m and 100m freestyle champion Britta Steffen admitted she was relieved to book her place at the London Games with victory in the 100m final at the German trials on Saturday. "It feels good that I have got the time I needed and confirmed the qualification," said the world-record holder, having swum 53.68sec in the final. The 28-year-old is the fourth fastest in the world this year having also clocked 53.65sec in the 4x100m relay on Thursday and proved she is back to her best after struggling at last year's world championships. "It's like breaking a barrier which I have now twice gone under and that gives you some reassurance," she added. "With that performance, you could get into the (Olympic) final, but to get a medal you need to manage to do a bit more." World 200m and 400m freestyle record-holder Paul Biedermann, Steffen's boyfriend, won Saturday's 400m final, to add to his victory in Friday's 200m final, and said he was happy with his time of 3min 47.98 sec. "It was a very tough race, that was the first real competition this year," he said. "I hope that I can now improve from competition to competition. I've still got three months until the Olympics." Others booked their London places with German records as Jan-Philip Glania, in the men's 200m backstroke, who swam 1min 55.87sec, and Jenny Mensing, in the women's final, impressed over the same distance in a time of 2min 08.30sec. "I did not know what was the record, it was all about the Olympic standard," said the 23-year-old Glania.