Switzerland’s Noe Ponti earned a third title and a third world record at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest in an evening session where Zalan Sarkany claimed the host’s first gold and Jordan Crooks of the Cayman Islands became the first swimmer to better 20sec for the 50m freestyle, clocking 19.90.

Ponti was jubilant after adding the 100m butterfly title to his previous victories in the 50m butterfly and 100m medley, clocking 47.71, with France’s Maxime Grousset taking silver in 48.57.

European swimmers claimed two other silvers through Tessa Giele of The Netherlands in the women’s 100m butterfly and Germany’s Florian Wellbrock in the men’s 1500m.

And the continent’s medal share on the night was compounded by bronzes from Britain’s Abbie Wood in the women’s 400m medley and Alberto Razzetti of Italy in a men’s 400m medley won by NAB swimmer Ilia Borodin.

It was a night when this edition of the Championships raised its total of world records set to a staggering 24.

Ponti’s and Crooks’s efforts – the latter having set an earlier record of 20.08 in the 50m freestyle heats – were supported by two more world records from Gretchen Walsh of the United States and one from Canada’s Summer McIntosh, who took three and a half seconds off the seven-year-old women’s 400m medley mark.

Ponti raised his arms to the sky before punching the water after his latest triumph, which seemed to have a particularly strong effect upon him.

“It’s my favourite distance, favourite event, 100m fly, so to win it and create a world record, a crazy world record, it’s something amazing,” Ponti told Nick Hope of World Aquatics. “It’s just a dream come try to be able to have a world record in the 100m fly. It’s short course but still wow – and to take it away from one of my biggest idols, Caeleb Dressel, is special.”

Ponti, who missed a Paris 2024 100m butterfly medal by one place and finished fifth in the 200m butterfly in August, added: “My summer didn’t go as planned. But being able to swim this fast right now, hopefully I can keep it going for a couple of years…”

The 23-year-old was 0.28sec under his own world record pace at the 50m mark and kept on the right side of it when he touched home.

Sarkany created a sense of growing excitement in the Duna Arena as he took an early lead over the 19-year-old 1500m gold medallist, Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia, finishing in 7:30.56 after the crowd had got to their feet over the final lengths.

Jaouadi was second in an African record of 7:31.93, with Italy’s Luca De Tullio finishing third in 7:34.32, but the latter did not make the podium as the 7:31.90 set in an earlier heat by Germany’s Florian Wellbrock -proved enough for silver.

“I’m just super-glad I could do it in front of this crowd in my home town,” Zalan told Hope. “Honestly I never expected I would be able to do this at this race.

“My goal was to podium, to beat Ahmed and hopefully podium behind Florian. But to do this in front of this home crowd and to win – actually I cannot believe it. But hopefully I will get this feeling more often now.”

There was further reason for the evening to be memorable for home supporters as it marked the final competitive swim of Hungary’s seven-times European champion, 2019 world champion at 200m butterfly and Rio 2016 bronze medallist in 800m freestyle, Boglarka Kapas.

At the age of 31, Kapas called time on her stellar career after finishing 16th in the morning’s heats of the women’s 400m medley.

The evening session had got off to a world record start as another sensation of these Championships – 21-year-old Walsh –  won the women’s 100m butterfly title ahead of Giele in 52.71.

It was Walsh’s fourth title and seventh individual world record in an event where she is making her debut…

Giele, 22, claimed silver in 54.66, with Sweden’s Louise Hansson finishing fourth in 55.23.

Just over half an hour later Walsh was back in the water for the 50m freestyle semi-finals – where she collected individual world record number eight as she clocked 22.87 ahead of her compatriot Kate Douglass in 23.35, with Poland’s Katarzyna Wasick third in 23.46 ahead of Italy’s Silvia Di Pietro, NAB athlete Anna Surkova and Britain’s Eva Okaro.

The men’s 50m freestyle world record of 20.08 set in the morning heats by the Cayman Islands’ Crooks had raised hopes that the 20sec mark could be beaten for the first time when he returned for his evening semi-final.

The 22-year-old defending champion didn’t disappoint. Soon he, like Ponti, was pounding the water after becoming the first swimmer to better 20sec for the event.

Speaking poolside after his monumental marker, Crooks commented: “I tried to have a better swim than this morning. I’m super grateful it worked out this way and I’m just looking forward to tomorrow.”

Asked what had allowed him to make the further improvement, he responded: “Just a cleaner start, a cleaner break, all around sharper racing than this morning.”

Nyls Korstanje of The Netherlands was fourth fastest qualifier in 20.63 ahead of NAB swimmer Egor Kornev and France’s Grousset.

There was further European success in the women’s 400m medley, where Britain’s Wood took bronze in 4:24.34 in a race where Canada’s 18-year-old Olympic champion McIntosh produced another stupendous world record as she clocked 4:15.48 – smashing the 2017 mark of 4:18.94 set by Spain’s Mireia Belmonte.

For McIntosh it was the third title and world record of these Championships.

Ireland’s Ellen Walshe took fifth place in 4:29.86, with Spain’s Emma Carrasco finishing eighth in 4:31.18.

The men’s 400m medley saw gold go to 21-year-old Borodin in 3:56.83, with Razzetti collecting bronze in 3:58.83. Britain’s Max Litchfield, fastest qualifier, finished fifth in 4:00.50.

The evening session concluded with a mixed 4x100m relay that was won by an NAB quartet that included double individual champion Miron Lifintsev in 3:30.47.

Britain finished fifth in 3:35.46 ahead of a Spanish quartet featuring Carles Coll Marti – who had claimed his country’s first world short course title for 10 years in winning the previous night’s 200m breaststroke.

Lithuania’s defending champion in the women’s 50m breaststroke, Ruta Meilutyte, was fastest qualifier for tomorrow’s final in 28.39, while qualifying for the men’s 50m breaststroke final was topped by NAB athlete Kirill Prigoda, silver medallist in last night’s 200m breaststroke, in 25.48.

The morning session saw Estonia’s 17-year-old Eneli Jefimova, already a bronze medallist in the women’s 100m breaststroke, qualify third fastest for tomorrow’s women’s 50m breaststroke semi-finals, with Italy’s 21-year-old Simone Cerasuolo second fastest into the men’s 50m freestyle semis.

Full results from the competition can be found on the World Aquatics website, and all the action is available to watch live on the Eurovision Sport website.