Triple 2012 Olympic finalist Hannah Miley set a new British record as she claimed swimming silver in the 200 metres individual medley at the European Short-Course Championships in Chartres.
The 23-year-old was eighth at the end of the butterfly leg, moving through the field to fourth on the backstroke before producing the fastest breaststroke leg in the field to turn first going into the freestyle.
The Garioch swimmer was then overhauled by Katinka Hosszu, with the Hungarian touching in two minutes 05.78 seconds, 0.43secs ahead of Miley whose time of 2mins 06.21 secs lowered her own British record by 0.49secs.
Four British women had finished in the top eight of the medley heats, Aimee Willmott and Sophie Smith seventh and eighth respectively. However, with just two representatives from each country allowed to progress, it was Miley and O'Connor who contested the final, underlining the strong competition that is coming through to challenge the former.
"I'm satisfied with that performance," said Miley. "I've got a busy week ahead and am training through it so to swim so quickly is good. I've changed my training programme and it's showing it works. Every season we change things slightly and I'm pleased with the effect it's had."
The British team in Chartres is a mixture of Olympians and younger swimmers who are pushing to break on to the senior team. For them the event is part of their progression as well as providing exposure to international competition.
In that context, producing personal bests in a competitive environment is the target so the efforts of Molly Renshaw (50m breaststroke), world junior champion Craig Benson (100m breaststroke), Lucy Spencer (100m freestyle), Calum Jarvis, Craig McNally and Joe Patching (200m backstroke), Jack Burnell (400m freestyle) and Karley Mann (100m backstroke) offer hope for the future at the start of another Olympic cycle.
A notable performance came in the 100m backstroke from Lauren Quigley, the highly-rated 17-year-old who reached Friday's final in a personal best of 58.44.
Other performances saw Olympic 200m freestyle champion Yannick Agnel win the 400m event, a week after he lowered the world record, Olympic champion Florent Manaudou sizzled to 50m free victory while Laszlo Cseh won his 14th European short-course title when he took the 200m individual medley.