Norway’s two gold medals at the European swimming championships yesterday were dedicated to Alex Dale Oen, the world champion who died suddenly last month.

When Sara Nordenstam won the 200-metre breaststroke, she flexed her muscles and pointed to the Norway flag on her cap just like Dale Oen did when he won the 100 breast in Shanghai last year for the country’s first world title in swimming.

Then a half-hour later, Ingvild Snildal edged Sweden’s Martina Granstroem by three-hundredths of a second in the 100 butterfly, and pointed to Dale Oen’s initials — ADO — on her cap.

Dale Oen died of cardiac arrest during an altitude training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, on 30 April.

“I told myself that if I was ever going to stand on the top of the podium some day, I wanted to do the same thing that Alex did — to pay tribute to him,” Nordenstam said. “I learned so much from him. He’s been my mentor and my friend and I miss him a lot. But I had no idea that that day was going to come so quick. But I promised myself and I had to do it, and it felt good.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s Filippo Magnini beat Olympic champion Alain Bernard for gold in the 100 freestyle — swimming’s signature event — for his first medal in four years.

Also, Gergo Kis of host Hungary won the 800 freestyle, a non-Olympic event for men.

Nordenstam touched in 2 minutes, 26.91 seconds for her gold, which also sealed her a place on Norway’s Olympic team, joining Snildal, the only other Norwegian qualified so far. Irina Novikova of Russia took silver and Sarah Poewe of Germany claimed bronze.

Snildal won in 58.04 seconds, Granstroem touched in 58.07 and Amit Ivri’s bronze was Israel’s fourth medal of the meet.

“It was a good night for Norwegian swimming,” Nordenstam said. “It’s big for us, it really is. After these tragic times we’ve been really close as a team, and it’s really great to see that we want to keep pushing forward.”

World champion in 2005 and 2007, Magnini hadn’t won a medal since taking a bronze at the 2008 Europeans in Eindhoven. After clocking 48.77 seconds, he celebrated wildly on the pool deck, pumping his fists and beating his chest.

“This is dedicated to all those who supported me in the three years when I won everything and in the two where I messed everything up,” Magnini said. “I’m extremely happy. I was getting tired of not reliving those emotions that have made my life so beautiful.”

Still, Magnini’s time was far off the 47.10 that current 100 free standout.

Bernard, who won’t defend his Olympic title after failing to qualify at the French trials, settled for silver while Norbert Trandafir of Romania took bronze.

Earlier, Magnini’s girlfriend Federica Pellegrini, the Olympic champion and world record-holder, led the 200 free semi-finals in 1:57.81.