Julie Douglas recorded a disappointing eighth place in the 50 metre freestyle semi-final at the European Swimming Championships in Madrid this afternoon.
The Carrickfergus woman finished in a time of 26.49 seconds, 0.18 slower than that of her earlier heat, and well off the Athens standard of 25.64.
Sweden's Therese Alshammar, twice European champion, pipped Germany's Sandra Volker for first place, with a time of 25.01.
World champion Alexander Popov cut it fine and just squeezed into the 50 metres freestyle final as slowest qualifier at the European swimming championships on Saturday.
The Russian, double Olympic champion in both 1992 and 1996, finished third in his semi-final in 22.68 seconds, a time which proved sufficient by a mere 0.03 seconds as Spain's Eduard Lorente was the unlucky ninth overall in 22.71.
Oleksandr Volynets of Ukraine was fastest final qualifier in 22.41.
The 32-year-old Popov, whose world record stands at 21.64, is competing only in the 50 freestyle in Madrid, having won the European title four times.
Mark Foster, seeking to win an appeal against his exclusion from the British Olympic squad, was joint fourth with Russia's Andrei Kapralov in his semi-final in 22.64 and joint sixth qualifier overall for Sunday's final. But he needs to go faster in the final to have any hope of salvaging his dream of a fifth Olympics.
Foster, world silver medallist behind Popov last year, won the 50 freestyle at the British Olympic trials in April but his time of 22.47 was 0.05 seconds outside what he needed under tough selection criteria which demanded a time equal or faster than the 12th fastest in the world in 2003.
World bronze medallist Andriy Serdinov of Ukraine added a European title to his collection when he edged out French veteran Franck Esposito to win the 100 metres butterfly.
Serdinov, bronze medallist in the 50 butterfly, led Esposito by 0.01 seconds at the 50-metre turn and swept away to win in 52.31. Esposito, who failed to make the final in an ill-starred 200 butterfly title defence, took the silver in 52.65 and Russia's Nikolai Skvortsov the bronze in 52.75.
Romania's Camelia Potec, bronze medallist in Wednesday's 800 metres freestyle, stepped up to gold when she regained the women's 200 metres freestyle title she won in 1999.
Solenne Figues of France, who had led for much of the race in a duel with Sweden's Josefin Lillhage, took the silver in 1:58.30 and Lillhage the bronze in 1:59.45. World champion Alena Popchanka of Belarus was never in contention and finished seventh.
Germany's Franziska van Almsick, who broke the 200 freestyle world record at the 2002 European championships, did not defend the title.
Italy won the concluding men's 4x200 freestyle relay in a championship record 7:11.93.