The men’s 400IM and the respective 4×200 free titles will be decided on the first night of finals at the European Championships in Paris.
Ilia Borodin was the fastest qualifier in the 400IM as the show went on despite the absence of French hero Leon Marchand who withdrew from the IM events because of injury.
Marchand will though lead off the French 4×200 free squad against the likes of Great Britain’s Matt Richards, Germany’s Lukas Märtens and Carlos D’Ambrosio of Italy.
The women’s 4×200 free features the Neutral Athletes B team alongside Germany in the centre lanes.
There’ll be four semifinals with Marrit Steenbergen setting a 100 free championship record of 52.62 in prelims while home favourite Maxime Grousset was just 0.01 off the CR and his own French 50 fly record. Adam Ramsay-Peaty led the way in the 100 breaststroke with his fellow Briton Katie Shanahan heading the 200 back.
Men’s 400m Individual Medley
Borodin led the way in the prelims ahead of Finn Hammer of Germany with four men on 4:13.
Alberto Razzetti led through the butterfly, ahead of Borodin with Max Litchfield coming through for a narrow lead after the backstroke.
Borodin led after the breaststroke followed by Razzetti and Litchfield with the positions remaining unchanged.
Borodin came home in a championship record of 4:08.17, taking 1.42secs off the previous standard of 4:09.59 held by the great Laszlo Cseh of Hungary since Eindhoven 2008. Razzetti won n 4:10.40 and Litchfield bronze in 4:11.58.
Litchfield said: “This morning was faster than Glasgow, so it’s really good. Let’s say a month ago I wasn’t really sure I was even going to swim Commies or here. A few things been going wrong physically, we’ve not been able to get 100% right yet, so at Edinburgh Scottish Nationals I was like 4:23, so really struggling. So it’s great to see the work we’ve done the last four weeks and stuff to turn it around. It’s great. And some good learnings moving forward as well about how I recover and rest. So yeah, pretty happy.”
Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay
Great Britain won the women’s 4×200 free relay after leading from start to finish.
The quartet of Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Leah Schlosshan and Freya Anderson came home in 7:45.93 to lower Italy’s CR of 7:50.53 which stood since Berlin 2014.
The real battle unfolded behind them with Hungary taking silver in 7:49.09 ahead of the Neutral Athletes who took third by 0.01 in 7:49.13
Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay
“Leon! Leon! Leon!” rang out around the Olympic Aquatic Centre as the four-time Olympic champion got on the blocks followed by a huge roar as he dived in.
It rose to a crescendo as he put the French team into the lead out in lane one in 1:43.76 ahead of the Neutral Athletes.
However, Lithuania chased down Pierre Largeron on the second leg to go in ahead at halfway.
James Guy steered Great Britain into the lead at the final handover to Duncan Scott, swimming alongside Corenelius Jahn of Germany.
Great Britain came home in a CR of 7:01.52 to add the European crown to their Olympic and world titles ahead of Frarnce (7:02.23) and Germany (7:02.28).
Semi-Finals
Men’s 50m Butterfly
Noè Ponti headed the first semi in 22.53, 0.02 off his Swiss record. When Grousset was introduced to the crowd at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, a deafening roar became a chorus of “Maxime! Maxime!” However, it was Egor Kornev who led the way in 22.36, a new championship record, ahead of Grousset who matched his 22.49 prelim time.
Ponti was third through to the final with Diogo Ribeiro, Luca Armbruster, Thomas Ceccon, Kristof Milak and Grigori Pekarski joining the Swiss.
Women’s 100m Freestyle
Marrit Steenbergen lowered Sarah Sjöström’s long-standing world record to 51.68 at the Sette Colli in Rome in June.
Steenbergen served notice of her intent in prelims where she took down Sjöström’s championship record in 52.62 while looking as if she had plenty of reserve as she rolled into the wall.
She was 0.08 off her WR at the turn before coming home in 52.44 for a new CR with Sara Curtis the other woman to break 53secs in 52.93.
Barbora Janickova of Czechia clinched the eighth and last spot for the final in 53.62.