Ross Murdoch was the toast of Great Britain on day four of the European Aquatics Championships in London as the hosts claimed an impressive five medals.
Jazz Carlin got the medal rush underway as she claimed 800m freestyle silver, while that was the same colour that Siobhan-Marie O’Connor collected in the 200m individual medley.
In the same race as O’Connor was Hannah Miley and she claimed a bronze medal, before Murdoch picked up gold in the 200m breaststroke.
Murdoch touched home in 2:08.33 minutes to climb the top step of the podium, 0.07 ahead of German Marco Koch with Italian Luca Pizzini in third.
Great Britain weren’t done there as Kathleen Dawson won bronze in the 100m backstroke, but there was no doubting who the star of the show was.
And Murdoch, was delighted with his evening’s work.
“I’m so happy with that,” said Murdoch, who will make his Olympic debut in Rio later this year. “I never imagined to win a gold medal here so I’m absolutely delighted.
“I could see Marco [Koch] creeping up on me and I knew I just had to keep my length and stay disciplined during that last length and it paid off.
“This just proved that all the hard work does pay off. I started working with my coach Ben [Higson] back in 2013 and I’ve never looked back.”
Elsewhere, Chloe Tutton and Molly Renshaw both qualified for the 200m breaststroke final, Duncan Scott was seventh in his 100m freestyle semi-final and Great Britain were an agonising fourth in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
Sportsbeat 2016