Tom Derbyshire claims European Junior 1500m Freestyle crown

Tom Derbyshire won 1500m Freestyle gold to cap a memorable second day for Great Britain at the 2016 European Junior Championships in Hungary.

The Royal Wolverhampton School swimmer took an axe to his PB to claim gold in 15:08.31.

The young Brit’s time was more than 14 seconds faster than his previous lifetime best – a 15:22.58 effort from the 2015 British Championships in London.

I AM EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPION!!!

— Tom Derbyshire (@Derbyshire66) July 7, 2016

Derbyshire’s win was the fourth English gold of the night, adding to victories from Emily Large, Freya Anderson and Taz Pugh.

Derbyshire adds to Commonwealth Youth crown

Unlike his three compatriots, Derbyshire was part of the British team at last year’s European Games in Baku, finishing eighth in the 1500m Free.

He went on to land gold in the same event for England at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.

And the 18-year old used all his experience to take the race out in Hungary, establishing a two-second lead on 5:01.69 after 500m.

Spain’s Albert Escrits Manosa took chase of the Brit, but couldn’t close the gap in the middle 500m with Derbyshire coming through the 1000m mark at 10:05.55 to the Spaniard’s 10:07.97.

And the English swimmer pulled clear in the final third of the race, eventually touching 3.29 seconds ahead of Escrits Manosa to claim his first European Junior title.

Nathan Hughes sets PB for seventh

Hatfield’s Nathan Hughes was also in action in the 1500m Freestyle, placing seventh overall.

The 16-year old was within four seconds of Derbyshire’s British Age Group record as he clocked a PB 15:26.05.

The all-English Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay quartet of Elliot Clogg (City of Sheffield), Alex Wray (Deepings), Hannah Featherstone (Sedgefield) and Abbie Wood (Loughborough University) closed the night with an eighth place finish in 3:35.99.

• Click here to view results from the 2016 European Junior Swimming Championships in Hungary.

Image credit: A. Masini / Deepbluemedia