Britain secure top spot on the medal table
With three more titles on the last day Great Britain secured the first place both in the swimming medal table and in the overall. The Team Trophy went to Italy. The Danish women’s medley relay set a new European Record – that was also a new Championship Record, the 29th CR of this edition. Russia’s Nedezhda Bazina won the last title on offer, winning the 3m in diving.
Fran Halsall opened the British marching on the last day by winning the 50m free, later she added a bronze in the medley relay, her 5th medal in Berlin. Then Jazmin Carlin won the 400m free, it was her second title (note that the silver medallist Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands and the bronze medallist Mireia Belmonte of Spain both stood on the podium in the open water events as well). And to secure a perfect ending to the championships, the Brit’s men medley relay team also triumphed.
GB’s Adam Peaty won his 4th gold overall in the relay team – the same feat Florent Manaudou reached a bit earlier when he clinched the title of the men’s 50m free.
Sarah Sjoestroem and Katinka Hosszu also piled up some medals: the Swede finished with 7, adding two silver to her tally after coming second in the 50m breast and in the medley relay while Hosszu got her 6th by finishing third in the 200m fly. The Hungarian Iron Lady got 5 individual medals (including 3 gold) just as Mireia Belmonte (ESP) who won the 200m fly on Sunday and later got a bronze in the 400m free – the best individual efforts at these Europeans.
Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) staged a rather successful globetrotting: after winning gold medals at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing (CHN) she flew in for the last two days of the Europeans and clinched the title of the 50m breast.
David Verraszto completed Hungary’s swept of the individual medley titles by winning the 400m (Hosszu won both in the women’s field, Laszlo Cseh got the men’s 200m) – it was his first title in long-course pool.
As the highlight of the day the Danish women medley relay set a new European record with 3:55.62min – it was the 4th continental mark of the meet. Thanks to this gold the Danes clinched the second place in the swimming medal table, ahead of Hungary and Italy.
The last title was on offer in the diving pool, where a real drama unfolded in the women’s 3m event. For most of the time Tania Cagnotto was in the lead and the Italian was en route to repeat her historic feat of winning three gold medals in one edition (just as in 2009), she held a 12-point lead before the last dive but she couldn’t come up with a clean attempt and that cost her the title which went to Russia’s Nadezhda Bazina.As a consolation, she – just as Patrick Hausding – received the 2013 LEN Award from LEN President Paolo Barelli.
Soon after, in the frame of a short closing ceremony, Mr. Barelli thanked for Berlin, the LOC and the German Federation for hosting this great event which was outstanding success again. As a final act, LOC President Christa Thiel handed over the LEN Flag to David Sparkes, CEO of British Swimming, as London will be the next host of the European Championships.
See you there in 2016!
Press release from LEN
Images courtesy of deepbluemedia.eu
