Katie Shanahan and Ed Mildred ensured Team GB's swimmers ended their Baku 2019 European Olympic Festival (EYOF) on a high after a gold medal each in the pool on day six.
Both swimmers then added silvers as part of their respective 4x100m medley relay teams, which made it six for the day in the pool after Cameron Williams in the 100m breaststroke and Freya Colbert in the 800m freestyle both won silver.
Shanahan ends Baku 2019 with six medals, three gold and three silver, Team GB’s most decorated athlete of the Games. With swimming wrapping up their competition schedule on the penultimate day of action in Bakiu, tonight’s results mean the swimmers finish the week with 18 medals; six gold, eleven silver and one bronze.
“I’ve really surprised myself this week with how I’ve performed,” said the 15-year-old Scot, who broke an EYOF record with her 2:14.10 in the 200m individual medley final.
“I’m over to the moon to have won that many medals and in my performances, especially after coming fresh out of the European Juniors two weeks ago. It’s been such a good experience this week.
“Next year is obviously a big one because it’s the Olympics. If I can get close to making those times would be really good. Tokyo is an outside goal of mine, I’m not too far off the best girls in Britain.”
Mildred ends the Games with two golds and two silvers, but his 200m freestyle win was the first time this week the Northampton based athlete had won an individual title.
“Feels great to win gold and means it’s a been a good end to the week,” said Mildred.
“It’s been a really enjoyable and I’ve learnt a lot as part of the experience. Mainly about racing internationally and being in contention in races as this is my first time doing that.
“When you’re in lane four everyone is looking at you and expecting you to win. You have to learn to deal with that pressure and I’ve enjoyed that.”
Mildred then teamed up with Jacob Whittle, Cameron Williams and Mark Ford to win silver in the 4x100m medley relay before Shanahan, Sophie Freeman, Jemimah Berkeley and Tamryn van Selm followed suit in their medley relay.
Over at the tennis, Matilda Mutavdzic is guaranteed a medal after booking her place in the girls’ tennis singles final after a convincing 6-2 6-2 victory over France’s Oceane Babel.
Mutavdzic, who admitted she felt so unwell before the semi-final that she was asleep until about half an hour before the start, took control midway through the first set thanks to her aggressive returning and consistent ground strokes from the baseline
At 2-2 in the first, the 15-year-old then rattled off seven straight games before closing out the second set. Mutavdzic will play Russia’s Maria Sholokhova in tomorrow’s gold medal match.
“I certainly wasn’t feeling my best before the match,” said Mutavdzic.
“I was feeling about a three out of 10 before the match but now I’m on a 12.
“I got loads of support from the team and they helped give me a lot of energy. Then I felt I had as much a chance of winning as the other girl so I just tried my best and it happened to be my day.
“I try to be aggressive on the returns and sometimes it doesn’t work as it’s high risk but I have a lot of confidence on my strokes and I like to think on the big points it’s worth going for these things because I know I won’t have any regrets.”
Elsewhere, gymnast Sam Mostowfi finished fifth in his floor final, scoring 13.766, 0.2 off the bronze medal as Ukraine and Russia took the podium places while Daisy Gilroy was knocked out of her -70kg judo event in the opening round.
With one day of competition remaining at Baku 2019, Team GB have won 22 medals; eight gold, 12 silver and two bronze.