Britain’s swimmers burst into life on the second night of the European Championships in Berlin as Adam Peaty, Chris Walker-Hebborn and the mixed medley relay team all won gold as part of a haul of seven.
Aimee Willmott and Jay Lelliott got Britain going with two bronzes on the opening night but that was a mere drop in the pool in Germany with the British team enjoying a fine second evening which saw their overall total increase to nine.
After Ben Proud shared bronze in the 50m butterfly with Andriy Govorov of Ukraine, teammate Adam Barrett was seventh, Walker-Hebborn added the European 100m title to his Commonwealth crown claimed last month.
He clocked 53.32 seconds to finish first by more than three tenths ahead of Frenchman Jeremy Stravius, the 2011 world champion in the 100m backstroke, but he wasn’t done there in Berlin.
Three finals later came the 4x100m mixed medley relay final with Walker-Hebborn joining forces with Peaty, Jemma Lowe and Fran Halsall to win gold in a new world record time of 3:44.02 minutes.
In between Peaty and Halsall were both on the podium individually with the former, who won double Commonwealth gold and silver, taking gold in the 100m breaststroke ahead of teammate Ross Murdoch.
Peaty was third at the turn but was unstoppable thereafter to take the European title ahead of Murdoch who touched in a personal best 59.43 while 11-time Commonwealth medallist Halsall claimed bronze in the 50m butterfly.
That marked the ninth European medal of her career and in the other final on the second evening Lizzie Simmonds fought back from sixth place at the halfway mark to win silver in the 200m backstroke.
Roberto Pavoni was the only Brit in semi-final action on the second night and ensured he would get the chance to bid for a medal himself, advancing to the 200m medley final as the fourth fastest overall after clocking 1:59.54.
© Sportsbeat 2014