Leon Marchand brought the Olympic Aquatic Centre to its feet with a dominant victory in the 200 fly in Paris.
Kasia Wasick edged out Sarah Sjöström by 0.02 in the 50 free with the Swede leaving Paris with a gold and silver a year into motherhood.
Ellen Walshe completed the medley double with victory in the 200IM while Great Britain won the mixed 4×200 free for the third time.
There was a tribute to Florent Manaudou ahead of the finals session with the Frenchman having announced his retirement after a career in which he won 50 free medals at four straight Olympics including gold at London 2012.
Johannes Liebmann destroyed the 1500 free world record: read here
Mary-Ambre Moluh lowered her European 100 back record: read here
Great Britain head the medal table with one day remaining with six golds among 12 medals, one ahead of Italy and two more than the Neutral Athletes B team.
Men’s 200 Butterfly
When Leon Marchand announced he was scrapping the individual medley events from his program at the European Championships, due to an adductor injury, it left some downtime for the Frenchman in Paris. But on Saturday night, the four-time Olympic champion got the chance to contest his first individual final of the meet, and he came through with a sensational performance.
Trailing training partner Hubert Kos through the first half of the race, Marchand looked superb over the back end and roared to the European title in 1:51.72, the eighth-fastest time in history. Hungary’s Richard Marton claimed the silver medal in 1:54.06 while Greece’s Apostolos Siskos was the bronze medalist in 1:54.13. Kos finished sixth in 1:54.89.
Marchand suffered his adductor issue during the French Elite Championships and reaggravated the injury during training, which led to the decision to veer away from the medley events and the demand breaststroke places on the leg muscle. But the injury wasn’t going to prevent Marchand from racing in front of a home crowd, which so vocally supported their homegrown star at the 2024 Olympic Games in the French capital.
Women’s 50 Free
Sarah Sjöström made it six 50 fly golds and 18 overall European titles earlier this week. On Saturday, the Swede returned in search of her third 50 free title after golds at Glasgow 2018 and Roma 2022.
Sjöström, who will be 33 on Monday, was the only woman inside 24secs in the semis where she booked lane four in 23.83.
But Kasia Wasick edged ahead and never relinquished that advantage to take the title in 23.84 despite the Swede breathing down her neck. It was a Polish record for the five-time Olympian whose previous standard stood at 23.95 en-route to bronze at the 2024 worlds.
Sjöström was second in 23.86 with Sara Curtis taking bronze in 23.99 to cut 0.10 from her Italian record of 24.09 from the Sette Colli meet in June. It was a fifth medal of the meet so far for the 19-year-old; gold plus two WRs in the 50 back, bronze in the 50 and 100 free, silver in the 4×1 free and bronze in the mixed 4×1 free.
“It was an incredible final, very fast,” said Curtis. “The Italian record was my real goal as well as going under 24. I thought I was even ahead. However, a great bronze arrived, which underlines how good the work is I’ve done. Swimming next to Sarah (Sjöström) is always an incredible emotion and receiving her compliments has a real impact.” She added: “I want to thank all of Italy for their support and closeness. I am very proud to wear this uniform and to carry the tricolor high”.
Men’s 50m Breaststroke
Nicolo Martinenghi captured the 50/100 breaststroke double with victory in the one-length sprint.
Martinenghi touched in 26.57 for his second title in three editions following victory at Roma 2022 where he also won the double. Simone Cerasuolo and Koen de Groot shared silver in 26.62 as two Italians made it to the podium four years after the pair went 1-2 at the Foro Italico.
The Italian pair also shared the 100 breaststroke podium in Paris with Martinenghi on the top step and Cerasuolo in third with the Olympic champion having forced his way back into top spot after enduring injury.
“It was a very strange race. I knew that the final would be different from the other rounds,” Martinenghi said. “I like to enjoy these challenges that excite me. Repeating as in Rome would have been unthinkable until recently. Congratulations to Cerasuolo, he did three rounds of crazy races. The future is his.”
Cerasuolo became the second-fastest man in history when he went 26.20 in prelims, a new Italian record and a time surpassed only by world record holder Adam Ramsay-Peaty.
Women’s 200IM
Ellen Walshe completed the medley double after coming from fifth at the final turn to move through the field for victory in 2:09.81, an Irish record.
Roos Vanotterdijk – swimming from lane eight – took the race by the scruff of the neck, leading the field at the 50 and 100m marks. Abbie Wood went ahead on the breaststroke leg to turn first into the freestyle with the real prospect of her maiden individual title seemingly within her grasp.
However, Anita Gastaldi of Italy and Vanotterdijk accelerated out of the turn to come home for silver and bronze respectively in 2:10.07 and 2:10.10.
Wood was fourth in 2:10.17 ahead of Justina Kozan (2:10.55), Amalie Smith – the 16-year-old 4IM silver medallist – who clocked 2:10.56, defending champion Anastasia Gorbenko (2:10.70) and Alba Vazquez Ruiz (2:10.99).
“I think the middle lanes personally for me can be quite distracting because I’m like she’s there and she’s there,” said Walshe, who won the 400IM following a similarly pivotal final turn. “I knew diving in I was going to have to do my own thing here because you can’t see anyone and they can’t see you. I knew coming off that last wall I was going to have to do at least 14 metres underwater and try to get myself back up and just go for it. I just stuck to my own race plan, stayed really calm on the breaststroke, which sometimes I do tend to rush and add a number of strokes, and just feel it under pressure, it all worked out tonight.
“When you turn to look at people, it is that millisecond that could be on the wall and that was exactly second, third, and fourth all down the line tonight. I tried to stay super focused and calm on the breaststroke and then on the freestyle, I was like, I don’t know where anyone is, I can’t see them, until a little bit at the end I saw it was head-to-head with a couple of the girls on the line.”
Mixed 4×200 Freestyle
Great Britain made it a hat-trick of wins in the five editions since the event was introduced to the programme at Glasgow 2018.
The quartet of Jack McMillan (1:47.09), Matt Richards (1:45.85), Freya Colbert (1:55.23) and Freya Anderson (1:55.96) stopped the clock at 7:24.13, a new championship record surpassing their own 7:26.67 from the 2021 edition in Budapest.
Germany were second in 7:25.43 with the Neutral Athletes third in 7:26.35.
Anderson has anchored the quartet on each of those three title-winning occasions at the Covid-delayed 2020 edition held in 2021, Roma 2022 and now in 2026. The University of Stirling swimmer also swam the anchor leg as they won bronze in 2018.
“My breakout was this race in 2018, which is kind of showing my age,” said Anderson. “I went a 1:55.8 there, and that was the only time I’d ever been under 1:56, and then just did it again then. So yeah, in a relay, and I think we’re back on track.”
Now 25, Anderson has been making waves since winning the 100 free title at the 2017 world juniors when she was 16, a year after winning European junior gold. Since then she’s stood on Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth podiums, mainly as part of relays but also with silver and bronze individual medals at Europeans and three golds in short-course continental waters.
“There’s swimmers that have been good as a junior like myself and then sort of plateaued, and then now there’s some of them that are coming through the ranks again, so it’s kind of inspiring to me,” she said. “I just need a bit of luck on my side each season and hopefully things go well and I can still keep chipping away. Hopefully I’ve still got a bit left in me.”
