Britain celebrate final day haul

 

The British swim team made history tonight and were named Champions of Europe after a late medal flourish boosted their tally to
13 – the largest number ever won by a British squad at the European Championships (50m).

Great Britain clinched four more medals on the final day of the                 European Championships in Hungary.

The women’s 4x100m Medley team rounded off a
successful meet with gold in a new British record time
of 4:02.24. The quartet of Mel Marshall, Terri Dunning, Kirsty Balfour and Fran Halsall smashed three seconds off the previous British best in an exciting race that saw 16-year-old Halsall go head to head with German world record holder Britta Steffen on the final leg.

“I saw the German coming up on me and I thought I can’t let anyone past me – I’m British,” said a delighted Halsall. “It was so hard over the last 50m but I managed to hold on and I’m thrilled to get the gold.”

“I love swimming in the relays,” added Balfour, whose personal medal tally has now risen to two gold and a silver. “I wanted to do my best for the team and to win another gold is excellent.”

The men's team of Liam Tancock, James Gibson, Todd Cooper and Simon Burnett captured bronze in their final.

Jo Jackson and Caitlin McClatchey took silver and bronze in the 400m freestyle and Kate Haywood won silver in the women's 50m breaststroke.

Haywood just missed out on gold, finishing 0.002 behind Russia's Elena Bogomazova.