The European Championships came to an end with three gold medals on the final day confirming Great Britain’s place at the head of the medals table in Berlin.
Fran Halsall opened the session with 50m freestyle gold, Jazmin Carlin added the 400m freestyle title to her 800m gold before Ben Proud anchored the British men’s medley relay quartet to victory.
It meant Great Britain topped the table with 24 medals, including nine golds, ahead of Denmark — six golds among their total of nine — with Hungary in third with 14 medals of which five were gold.
Photo: AFP
There were two world records and five European records, including one in the penultimate event of the competition as Denmark’s women’s 4x100m medley relay squad won over Sweden in 3 minutes, 55.62 seconds.
Adam Peaty was prominent for Britain, a far cry from the little boy who refused to go near water and who readily confesses to having a fear and loathing of the pool when he was a young child.
Peaty and Florent Manaudou of France finished with four gold medals each, although the Briton set a world record in the 50m breaststroke and was part of the Great Britain mixed medley relay squad that set a new world mark.
Sarah Sjostrom was the most successful woman, the Swede claiming three gold medals and four silvers.
Hungary’s “Iron Lady” Katinka Hosszu won six medals — three gold, a silver and two bronzes — as did Spain’s Mireia Belmonte — two golds, two silvers and a bronze in the pool, along with the 5km open-water bronze.
Great Britain’s Fran Halsall won five; three golds and two bronzes.
Manaudou completed the sprint freestyle double with victory in the 50m freestyle — in which he is Olympic champion — his time of 21.32 seconds propelling him alongside Brazilian Cesar Cielo as the fastest man in history in a textile suit.
The Frenchman also shared the 50m butterfly title and was part of France’s victorious 4x100m freestyle title relay squad.
“This is my personal best. Nevertheless it was a completely perfect race,” Manaudou said of Sunday’s performance. “It is the end of the week and slowly but surely we are becoming tired.”
Peaty swam the breaststroke leg for the Great Britain medley relay, who won in 3 minutes, 31.73 seconds ahead of France and Hungary to add to his 50m and 100m breaststroke titles — and world record in the former — as well as his mixed relay gold, also in world-record time.
It has been a staggering few weeks for the 19-year-old. Two golds and a silver at the Commonwealth Games followed by his success in Germany.
“It’s a change of culture in British swimming, it’s amazing,” Peaty said. “There is no putting your feet up now, you’ve always got to keep working. I think that’s a good thing. You always have younger ones on your toes, in a few years I might have younger ones on my toes. It is going to keep you pushing and be good for Rio hopefully.”
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