Adlington and relay sign off with gold medals in Budapest
Two gold medals, a silver and two bronze saw British Swimming, powered by British Gas, sign off from the European Championships with their most successful night of the event and an 18 medal total haul.
Double Olympic Champion Becky Adlington was back on the top step of the podium after a thrilling Women’s 400m Freestyle victory and the Women’s 4x100 Medley Relay delivered another European title to enhance Britain’s greatest European performance my a massive margin.
Britain’s previous best of 13 medals has been smashed this week in Budapest despite the fact the team is focused on the season’s goal of the Delhi Commonwealth Games in October.
Adlington (Nova Centurion) showed her strong finish and desire for victory as she swam with composure and waited to dispatch Denmark’s Lotte Friis and then in the final 50m overhauled eventual silver medallist Ophelie Cyriell Etienne of France.
The gold medal went to Adlington in 4:04.56, Etienne took the silver in 4:05.40 and Friis the bronze in 4:07.10. Britain’s Jo Jackson (British Gas ITC Loughborough) was fifth in 4:09.14.
"That meant so much to me," said Adlington. “It's better to come back here smiling than crying like I did after the disappointment of 800m.
"Everybody's expecting so much of me, I don't want to let people down but I let myself down when I think about everybody else being let down."
Gemma Spofforth (Portsmouth Northsea), Fran Halsall, Kate Haywood (both British Gas ITC Loughborough) and Amy Smith (Loughborough University) took the gold medal in the Women’s 4x100m Medley after the Russian team was disqualified for an early take over.
Britain came home in 3:59.72, just outside their own Championship Record of 3:59.33, Sweden touched for the silver in 4:01.18 and Germany took the bronze in 4:03.22.
"We wanted to win it in our own way and I'm a little bit disappointed that we didn't," said Spofforth. “We’ve got a great medley relay team and a large part of our success tonight is down to the girls who swam this morning Stacey Tadd (University of Bath), Jemma Lowe (Stockton ASC) and Lizzie Simmonds (British Gas ITC Loughborough) who put us in a good lane.
Two of the medley quartet also closed their European Championships with individual medal success.
Haywood took the silver medal in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke to end a year of injury, surgery and recovery. Gold went to Yuliya Efimova of Russis in a Championships Record 30.29, Haywood posted a personal best 31.12 to take silver and bronze went to Jennie Johansson of Sweden in 31.24.
"I thought I was going to come here and get no medals so to get two in one session, I'm so happy," said Haywood.
“I’ve had ups and downs this week but I’m showing signs that my recovery is nearly complete. I’m so glad I ended on a high with two medals on the final night.”
Halsall completed her overall medal tally of five – and with it the honour of Britain’s most successful female at a Europeans – with a bronze in the Women’s 50m Freestyle.
She missed out on silver by just 1/100th of a second to Hinkelien Schreuder of the Netherlands in 24.66 while Swede Therese Alshammar took the gold in 24.45.
"Last time I came to the Europeans I got one medal, so to come away with five is incredible," said Halsall. "It was a big challenge for me getting up and coming down again after the medals throughout the week.”
Celebrating her 19th birthday, Ellen Gandy (Beckenham) swam an impressive race to claim the bronze in the Women’s 200m Butterfly.
"I opened my cards a couple of days ago - they were in my case and I couldn't resist - but a bronze medal is an awesome present," she said.
The Men's 100m Medley Relay team of Liam Tancock (British Gas ITC Loughborough), Kris Gilchrist (City of Glasgow), Antony James (Plymouth Leander) and Simon Burnett (Windsor) finished fourth in a time of 3:35.74 and Burnett finished eighth in the Men’s 50m Freestyle with a time of 22.38.
With six golds, six silvers and six bronzes, British Swimming finished third in the medals table behind Russia (7-4-1) and table-toppers France (8-7-6).
DIVING – Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree gave a strong performance in the Women’s 3m Synchro Final to finish fifth with a score of 280.08.
The pair scored nearly 30 points more with the final list of dives than the morning preliminaries where they qualified 8th for the final.
Useful?
9
