Kapas takes fourth gold as Hungary top medals table

LONDON: Boglarka Kapas won her fourth gold medal of the European swimming championships on Sunday as Hungary topped the final medals table while hosts Britain wrapped up the pool action with a relay double.

Kapas had already won 800m, 1,500m and 4x200 freestyle golds and the 23-year-old added the 400m to her collection with a time of four minutes 3.47 seconds, ahead of Britain’s defending champion Jazz Carlin.

The time moved her up to sixth in the world rankings ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Hungary ended the meeting with 10 golds and a total of 19 medals, fewer than Britain who took their haul for the week to 22 but only seven of them gold.

Two of those came in the closing relays, with the women winning the 4x100m medley by more than two seconds before the men raised the roof by defending their title in the final race by a clear second.

It was the first time Britain had won both the medley relays at a European championships.

“The chemistry is building within this team and that’s only going to grow in the build-up to Rio,” said 50 and 100m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty, who ended the meeting with four golds despite being in heavy training.

World champion Manaudou won his final in 21.73, with Ukraine’s Andriy Govorov second in 21.79 and Britain’s Ben Proud taking the bronze in 21.85, but had hoped to win with more of a flourish.