A tumultuous opening day at the European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships produced two titles for Great Britain and two world junior records for the neutral athletes (NA) in the men’s 4x100m freestyle.

Sixteen-year-old Amalie Smith won the first gold of an event being held in the uniquely beautiful swoops and curves of the futuristic Munich 1972 Olympics venue, breaking her own Championship record in the women’s 400m individual medley with a time of 4:35.32.

Smith then helped her team-mates in the women’s 4x100m freestyle to add another gold in a European junior record of 3:37.35.

And the evening concluded in deafening fashion as the NA’s 4x100m freestyle quartet, who had lowered the world junior mark to 3:14.72 in the heats, took another chunk out of it to earn the third gold of the night in 3:12.75.

It was quite the day for records, as Czechia’s Jan Foltyn set a new men’s 50m breaststroke Championship mark of 27.18 in the heats, only for it to be equalled by Great Britain’s Max Morgan in the evening’s semi-finals.

Smith had arrived here with one mission – to retain her 400m individual medley title.

And after a mighty contest with Vivien Jackl, winner of this event in 2023 and 2024, it was a case of mission accomplished as she bettered her 2025 Championship record of 4:37.02.

The 17-year-old Hungarian, who took bronze in this event last year – earned silver in 4:37.47, with AIN’s Viktoriia Blinova taking bronze in 4:45.78.

“It’s so enjoyable to race Vivien,” Smith told European Aquatics. “She’s such a great competitor and she’s so strong in the water and I’m so happy I was able to race her.

“I’m really happy to regain my title. Coming into this I was really unsure, as Vivien has been really strong. But to get it makes me really happy.”

Jackl commented: “I think it was better this way, that I came second. I love racing Amalie, she’s crazy fast and she just helps me push harder.

“There is still a lot of work I need to do for this 400m IM, but I’m super excited to be racing again because last year wasn’t as I expected and I’m just focusing on trying to enjoy racing again.

“It was so fun (in the venue). My parents are here and I could hear them cheering for me, the same as my teammates. So I’m really happy to be here.”

At the press conference on the eve of these Championships Smith had reflected on her breakthrough wins in the 200m and 400m individual medley at last year’s edition in Samorin, accepting she might not always be in the lead but insisting she wanted to get her race plan down and “see an improvement.”

The race plan worked beautifully.

Smith, who will not be defending her 200m IM title, trailed by almost five seconds at the halfway point but took over the lead in the penultimate breaststroke before maintaining her position in the concluding freestyle.

Jackl had held a marginal 0.04 lead after the butterfly, and she extended that after the backstroke, reaching the halfway point in 2:10.81 to Smith’s 2:15.57.

But as soon as the two rivals moved onto the breaststroke Smith’s surging power began to alter the balance. By the turn she had reduced the margin to 1.36sec, and when they embarked on the final 100m she led 3:31.53 to 3:33.71.

Jackl could do nothing to alter the order, and Smith, who had described her double win last year as a “massive confidence-booster”, will now head towards the European Aquatics Championships that start in Paris on July 31 buoyed by her latest competitive affirmation.

The British national anthem sounded out once again thanks to the efforts of the women’s 4x100m freestyle team.

Second to Italy in the morning’s heats, they held second place behind the neutral athletes after the opening legs by Emma Wood and Theodora Taylor, the latter in a great split of 53.42.

Third leg swimmer Hannah Capron built on that to move GB into the lead with a split of 54.53 before Smith took over to secure gold number two with a concluding effort of 54.17.

Italy took silver in 3:39.36, with bronze going to the neutral athletes in 3:39.62.

“This means the world to me,” Capron said. “It’s my first European junior final so to be able to go out and do that with this amazing relay team, I could not ask for more.”

An exhausted Smith added: “I was burning so much but I knew I was ahead and I just had to keep going and think ‘it’s now or never’.”

The neutral athletes men’s 4x100m freestyle team had qualified for the final in world record fashion, finishing almost four seconds clear of their nearest challengers, defending champions Italy.

It was the same story in the final as Bogdan Toropkin, Egor Proshin, Matvei Miliaev and 2025 400m freestyle champion Mikhail Shcherbakov brought them home victorious again.

Italy took silver in 3:15.46, with Great Britain claiming bronze ahead of France in 3:16.06.

Home hope Linda Roth will go into tomorrow’s women’s 200m freestyle final as second fastest qualifier in 1:59.11 behind Lithuania’s Ieva Jurkunaite, who clocked 1:58.79.

Austria’s defending men’s 200m freestyle champion Christian Giefing qualified second fastest for tomorrow’s final in 1:45.88 behind the 1:45.75 set by AIN’s Grigorii Vekovishchev, the 400m freestyle champion from last year.

Spain’s Irene Ciercoles Galve was fastest into tomorrow’s women’s 50m backstroke final in 27.97, ahead of Romania’s Daria-Mariuca Silisteanu, the 2025 100m  backstroke gold medallist.

Artsiom Yarmak of Belarus qualified fastest for the men’s 50m backstroke final in 25.05, while neutral athlete Sofia Anufrieva headed the women’s 50m breaststroke field in 30.95.

Hungary’s defending men’s 200m butterfly champion David Antal was fastest into the final in 1:58.56 ahead of France’s Mateo Gregoire-Charmasson, who clocked 1:59.26.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics