Team GB sign off in style

Becky Adlington
12 April 2012

Two gold medals, a silver and two bronzes saw Great Britain sign off from the European Championships in Budapest with their most successful night of the event and an overall medal haul of 18.

With six golds, six silvers and six bronzes, GB finished third in the medals table behind Russia (7-4-1) and table-toppers France (8-7-6) to easily surpass their previous best of 13 medals despite the team being focused on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

Double Olympic champion Becky Adlington was back on the top step of the podium after a thrilling 400m freestyle victory and the women's 4x100 medley relay squad delivered another European title.

Adlington produced a strong finish 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 Briton won in four minutes 4.55 seconds, Etienne took the silver in 4mins 05.40secs and Friis the bronze in 4:07.10. World silver medallist Jo Jackson was fifth in 4:09.14.

Gemma Spofforth, Fran Halsall, Kate Haywood and Amy Smith took the gold medal in the 4x100m medley relay 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.

Two of the medley quartet also closed their European Championships with individual medal success. Haywood took the silver medal in the 50m breaststroke to end a year of injury, surgery and recovery. Gold went to Yuliya Efimova of Russia with Haywood posting a personal best of 31.12 to take silver.

Halsall took her overall medal tally of five - and with it the honour of Britain's most successful female at a European Championships - with a bronze in the 50m freestyle. Celebrating her 19th birthday, Ellen Gandy (Beckenham) swam an impressive race to claim the bronze in the 200m butterfly.

The men's medley relay team came fourth while Simon Burnett was eighth in the 50m freestyle. In the diving, Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree gave a strong performance in the 3m synchro final to finish fifth with a score of 280.08.

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