British Swimmers Claim Record Medal Haul

by James Skitt - 16.07.10

Britain’s swimmers added five more medals on the final day of the European Swimming Championships in Budapest on Sunday to record their best ever medal total of eighteen, enough to finish third on the medal table behind Russia and France.

Fran Halsall starred with five medals, the most ever by a British Swimmer at the Championships, including gold in the 4x100m medley relay alongside Gemma Spofforth, Kate Haywood and Amy Smith as they took advantage of Russia’s disqualification.

Halsall also added 50m freestyle bronze to her 100m freestyle gold earlier in the week, whilst relay teammate Haywood claimed silver in the 50m breaststroke in a personal best time of 31.12 seconds.

Halsall told the British Swimming website: “Last time I came to the Europeans I got one medal, so to come away with five is incredible.

 "It was a big challenge for me getting up and coming down again after the medals throughout the week.”

There was also a pleasing finish to the Championships for Olympic Champion Rebecca Adlington, who bounced back from her disappointment at finishing seventh in the 800m freestyle to win gold in the 400m freestyle, whilst Ellen Gandy was Great Britain’s other medallist on the final day, claiming a 200m butterfly bronze medal on her 19th birthday.

Adlington said afterwards: "That meant so much to me.

 “It's better to come back here smiling than crying like I did after the disappointment of [the] 800m.
 
"Everybody's expecting so much of me, I don't want to let people down but I let myself down when I think about everybody else being let down."

Preparation for the Europeans and the Commonwealth Games later this year has involved a breadth of sport science and medical support services across the country, with services such as strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, performance nutrition, performance lifestyle, physiology and performance psychology amongst those delivered by the English Institute of Sport (EIS) to British Swimming’s World Class Programme.

For more information about British Swimming and details of results and forthcoming events visit the British Swimming website

Photography © Getty Images