Team GB finished with a flurry in the pool at the European Games in Baku, with a 200m freestyle one-two for Duncan Scott and Cameron Kurle the pick of six medals on the final day of swimming action.
Charlie Attwood picked up bronze in the 100m breaststroke while Abbie Wood was the day’s other individual winner with bronze in her 200m individual medley final.
And there was more relay success for the Brits as the women’s 4x200m freestyle team took bronze and the men’s 4x100m medley quartet won silver to take the tally to 23 for the competition.
For Scott and Kurle it was a case of holding off the challenge of Russia’s Elisei Stepanov and Nikolay Snegirev, before battling out among themselves for top spot.
In the end that went to Scott who finished with a time of 1:48.55 – 0.37 seconds ahead of his fellow Brit and a time he was delighted with.
“I’m really proud to get a gold, I knew Cameron would be the biggest threat and I knew if we took it out fast enough we could see the Russians off,” he said.
“There’s a big battle between the Russians and the Brits in the pool here so it was good to come out on top in that one.
“It was my first time under 1:49 so that’s a massive barrier for me and two individual medals for Britain is great.”
The medals didn’t stop there for Scott, and he claimed his sixth of the Games when he took his place in the 4x100m medley alongside Attwood, Luke Greenbank and Martyn Walton.
The foursome could not keep pace with a powerful Russian side who finished in 3:36.38, but they did manage to keep Poland at bay to touch in at 3:39.01.
Scott added: “It’s been a great week, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and I have to say thanks to all the really teammates that I’ve been racing with.
“I have got two individual golds but I wouldn’t have the medal count that I do if it wasn’t for them.
“The 4x100, 4x200 and now this is brilliant. We didn’t expect a medal.”
It was also Attwood’s second medal of a busy final day after he recorded a personal best in the 100m breaststroke on his way to bronze.
Russia’s Anton Chupkov stormed to gold in 1:00.65 with Lithuania’s Andrius Sidlauskas second and Attwood third in 1:01.71.
“I’m over the moon with my performance, I stepped up today and got a PB in the final so I’m delighted with that,” he said.
Abbie Wood meanwhile picked up her fourth medal of the Games with a third-place finish in the 200m individual medley.
Wood took 400m IM gold earlier in the week before taking bronze and silver in the mixed and women’s 4x100m medley.
And she made sure of a return to the podium in her final race as she clocked 2:14.49 to edge out Italy’s Sara Franceschi.
“I’m definitely happy I got a medal, I wasn’t expecting it going in because I knew it was anyone’s game and there were close times going into the final,” she said.
“After the gold earlier in the week I probably had less pressure because I had done what I wanted to do, but I still wanted to do the best that I could.
“I took a lot of confidence from the gold, I thought I was just doing it for the experience but to medal is amazing.”
And in the women’s 4x200m relay Hannah Featherstone, Darcy Deakin, Holly Hibbott and Georgia Coates clocked 8:04.84 to take bronze behind Russia and the Netherlands.
“We knew going into the final it was going to be tough,” said Deakin. “So to come away with a bronze medal and to all go faster than the morning is really good.”
© Sportsbeat 2015