The Olympic Aquatic Centre roof received a severe test on the second evening of swimming at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026 as the hosts earned their first gold in the mixed 4x100m medley, where their lead-off swimmer Mary Ambre-Moluh set a European women’s backstroke record of 57.99..

Halfway through the closing relay medal ceremony the MC turned down the music and spectators took up the challenge to finish La Marseillaise in moving fashion.

Earlier Italian flags had been given a vigorous airing as Nicolo Martinenghi and Simona Quadarella earned gold in the respective men’s 100m breaststroke and women’s 800m freestyle finals.

There was a dizzying succession of world-class performances for the packed crowd, with Marrit Steenbergen setting a third successive Championship record in winning the women’s 100m freestyle title, NAB’s Egor Kornev earning men’s 50m victory ahead of home hope Maxime Grousset, and Katie Shanahan claiming the third British gold of these Championships in the women’s 200m backstroke.

Hungary’s world and Olympic champion Hubert Kos qualified for tomorrow night’s men’s 200m backstroke final in a European and Championship record of 1:52.30.

David Popovici of Romania reached tomorrow’s men’s 100m freestyle final in a Championship record of 46.72, bettering the then world record time of 46.86 he posted in winning this title in Rome four years ago.

And Great Britain’s Angharad Evans set her second successive Championship record as she qualified for the women’s 100m breaststroke final, clocking 1:04.97. Can she mimic Steenbergen and claim a third Championship record tomorrow night?

After the heroics of the previous evening, when Leon Marchand – still not fully fit – risked himself to produce a wonder swim in the opening leg of the men’s 4x200m freestyle to earn his first European medal and help France to silver, a second relay finale delivered all home spectators could have wished for.

Grousset ended the night with gold to add to his earlier silver, partnering Moluh – who became the first European woman to break 58.00 for the 100m backstroke – Carl Aitkaci and Marie Wattel.

The latter brought the team home in 3:39.64, ahead of The Netherlands, anchored by Steenbergen – who swam a closing leg of 50.87 to move her team up from fourth to second in 3:40.92 and NAB, who earned bronze in 3:41.52.

“I think it’s amazing and such a special moment for everyone,” Wattel told European Aquatics. “We were very emotional as for most of us our families are here and we just wanted to enjoy every second, so we are super proud of the team and hopefully way more gold medals in the next few days.

“I’m super grateful we are able to live such a moment like this, of course we were shaking a little bit (before the final) and nervous (because of the noise from the crowd) but we were also so motivated and I think they helped because we were not four people behind the blocks tonight we were 1000’s and thank you to all the French people.”

Steenbergen had earlier won the women’s 100m freestyle title in 51.90 having set previous Championship records of 52.62 and 52.44.

The double world champion, who lowered the world record to 51.68 earlier this year, thus regained the title she earned in 2022 and secured her seventh European gold.

Given Steenbergen is entered in five events here who knows what that total will be by the end of the Championships?

There was double Dutch delight as her 21-year-old team-mate Milou van Wijk came through to claim silver in 52.71 from Italy’s 19-year-old Sara Curtis, who was just 0.01 behind in bronze position.

“I’m happy with the place and a Championship record,” Steenbergen told European Aquatics. “The most important thing is getting your hand on the wall first, so I think it’s mission accomplished.

“This is the most important one. I still have a lot of races to go but it’s the one I wanted the most so now I have this one out of the way I just have some fun races to go and I think my shape is good so I’ll keep on building from that.

“It’s great to have a Dutch one-two, she did really well do to have that on the team is really important for the relay so I think it’s really encouraging.”

Curtis commented: “The race was really good. It was a personal best for me by two tenths of a second and I’m really happy because it’s my first European long course medal.”

It was Italy’s turn for glory in the next final as their Paris 2024 champion Nicolo Martinenghi earned gold in 58.58, with his team-mate Simone Cerasuolo, the world champion, claiming bronze from lane eight in 58.90.

Neutral Athlete B’s Ivan Kozhakin was silver medallist in 58.68.

Great Britain’s Adam Ramsay-Peaty and Filip Nowacki finished fifth and sixth respectively in 59.10 and 59.11.

Ramsay-Peaty had qualified in 58.94. The multiple world and Olympic champion turned in sixth place but was unable to find the kind of killing finish that he has produced down the years before generously congratulating the winner in the next door lane to him.

“This is incredible,” Martinenghi said. “Probably Paris now has a piece of my heart better than Budapest (scene of his first world title), but as I said before I tried to give to Paris something because it gave a lot to me. I saw my parents here and my girlfriend. The crowd was incredible and before the start I knew I could win even though it was a tough race.”

Cerasuolo added: “Yesterday I was very, very nervous and I wasn’t happy with my time. So now I am very happy to earn a medal – my first in European 100m breaststroke.”

Maxime Grousset, who faced a race to be fit for these Championships after breaking a bone in his left foot during training in early June, strained every sinew to deliver the gold a raucous home crowd desired in the men’s 50m butterfly but had to settle for silver in a race stacked with high performers.

Riding a wave of noise he clocked 22.54 in a race won by NAB’s Egor Kornev in 22.52, with Neutral Athletes A’s Grigori Pekarski taking bronze in 22.68.,

Switzerland’s Noe Ponti finished last in 22.91 after his goggles became displaced and lodged under his nose.

Greece’s 2024 silver medallist Apostolos Sisko was second fastest qualifier in the men’s 200m backstroke in 1:54.06, while Ireland’s 19-year-old double world and European champion John Shortt qualified fifth fastest after setting a huge personal best of 1:55.31.

France’s Nathan Muratory, who had clocked a world junior record of 1:54.87 in the morning’s heats, missed out on the final by one place after clocking 1:55.94.

Katie Shanahan had got the evening off to a golden start for Great Britain as she won the women’s 200m backstroke title in dominant fashion, taking over the lead at the halfway point and finishing more than a second clear in 2:06.13,

Portugal’s defending champion Camila Rebelo took silver in 2:07.62, and – to huge acclaim – Pauline Mahieu contributed France’s second medal of these Championships following the memorable performance of Marchand et al the previous night, finishing third in 2:08.63.

“I was really not expecting that at all!,” Shanahan said. “I knew I was in a really good place coming off the back of the heats and the semi-finals and I knew tonight I just really, really wanted to get my hand on the wall first. I’ve been second at Europeans three times.”

She added that this year had been the hardest of her career. “In January I couldn’t actually swim, I had to take 10 days out of the water as I was in so much pain with my back and I wasn’t sure what was going on. I got an MRI and found out that it was overload issues and I my disc was inflamed and everything was inflamed so I had to start from literally nothing and built up again.

“I then took a week out before trials with illness. Then in May I fractured my hand so yeah, there’s been 101 things going on this season! But to do that time – if you’d told me in January. I wouldn’t have believed you.”

Quadarella earned her fourth European 800m freestyle title, securing her ninth European gold in all with a time of 8:15.55, and Germany’s Isabel Gose – already with two open water golds to her name in Paris 2026 – claimed silver in 8:18.44, with bronze going to her young team-mate Maya Werner in 8:22.55.

“It’s really special because the race was tough and long like all my races but I knew I could win this and it makes me really happy,” Quadarella said.

“I really enjoy racing with Isabella (Gose), I knew she would push me hard especially at the start as she is faster than me but I built my speed throughout and I’m please with how I finished.”

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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics