“Superwoman” Sara Curtis, Italy’s 19-year-old swimming sensation, struck again at a packed Olympic Aquatic Centre, following up her previous night’s women’s 50m backstroke world record with another – 26.56 – as she earned her first senior European gold.

Shortly beforehand home swimmer Maxime Grousset was beaten to men’s 100m butterfly gold over the last few strokes by Hungary’s Paris 2024 champion Kristof Milak in a European record of 49.48 – eclipsing the mark of 49.68 set by Grousset in winning world gold last year and just 0.03 off the world record set by Caeleb Dressel of the United States at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Milak concluded the evening’s entertainment in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay with a staggering final leg of 46.29 – comfortably inside the official world record of 46.40 set by China’s Pan Zhanle at the Paris 2024 Games – which earned gold for him and his team-mates Hubert Kos, the men’s 200m backstroke champion, Szebasztian Szabo and Nandor Nemeth.

NAB took silver, 0.09 back, with bronze going to Croatia, led off by EA short course 50m freestyle champion Jere Hribar, in 3:11.08.

There had been much speculation about whether he would contest the relay here. It seems he made the right decision..

It transpired that decision was taken shortly after lunch in a conversation Milak had with his coach. His team-mates reportedly awoke from their afternoon naps to learn that they now had a serious chance of gold…

Great Britain’s 18-year-old world junior champion Filip Nowacki secured his first senior international championship medal in the men’s 200m breaststroke – and it was golden as  he overtook Dutch world short course record holder Caspar Corbeau over the final 25 metres.

Czechia’s Barbora Seemanova successfully defended her women’s 200m freestyle title in a Championship record of 1:54.38 despite being under heavy pressure all the way down the final 50 metres from Marrit Steenbergen of The Netherlands, who brought her medal total so far to two gold and two silver.

Belgium’s 21-year-old Roos Vanotterdijk equalled the Championship record as she clocked 55.89 in the women’s 100m butterfly semi-finals.

If anyone had doubts about whether Curtis could follow up her unexpected semi-final time of 26.63 on the big night they were disabused by her irresistible performance as she powered clear of a world class field to add to a medal collection already adorned with seven from last December’s EA Short Course Championships in Lublin.

France’s Mary-Ambre Moluh claimed silver in 27.06 – 0.01 inside the European record Curtis set in June – and Great Britain’s Lauren Cox beat Marrit Steenbergen of The Netherlands to bronze, 27.15 to 27.16.

After her semi-final race Curtis told European Aquatics: “I can tell that I am super woman right now. It’s unbelievable.” She still is – and it is entirely believable.

Tonight she commented: “I went to bed a bit later than usual, it was like 1am, I was just watching my race over and over every minute of every hour and I was watching all of my Instagram stories and messaging my friends and mum.

“But at one point I had to say, ‘no I must go to bed!’

“I was like, ‘no, the job isn’t finished yet, I want to make sure tomorrow I’m going to win this event as it’s probably the best race I have in my body right now. I wanted to win and make another world record tonight and I’ve done it and it’s amazing.”

Grousset, whose preparations for these European Aquatics Championships were undermined when he broke a bone in his foot early in June, once again found the way to beat his Swiss rival Noe Ponti, as he did to win world 50m and 100m butterfly titles in Singapore.

But on this occasion both were overtaken by the concentrated power of the 26-year-old from Budapest, who now has nine European golds.

Ponti had qualified fastest for the final the day before in 50.21 – a man on a mission after his chances in the previous night’s men’s 50m butterfly final had disappeared when his goggles became dislodged.

Tonight he finished with bronze in 49.93, with Grousset taking silver in 49.70.

That the Frenchman could get so close to his best despite the fact that he had been unable to work on his kick properly for so long in the run-up to these Championships was hugely to his credit.

And it may have owed a little bit too to the massive support he received from a full house crowd which chanted his name beforehand and acknowledged him afterwards with just as much warmth and fervour.

Milak, not widely given to sharing his thoughts, had observed to European Aquatics the day before that he felt “on the right track” having taken 0.60 off his 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle bests. He was not wrong.

And his extaordinary concluding performance only underlined the correctness of that assessment.

Steenbergen, Seemanova and Great Britain’s Freya Colbert turning for home together in the women’s 200m freestyle final, but it was the first two who moved clear and level, striving stroke-for-stroke for home, with the defending champion just touching ahead and the Dutch athlete taking silver in 1:54.65, with bronze going to Colbert in 1:55.81.

Nowacki, who won European and world junior doubles in the 100m and 200m breaststroke last year, and who made history last month for Jersey in winning their first Commonwealth swimming gold thanks to victory in the longer event, knew he had the best finishing speed.

But he needed to bring that completely to bear over the final 50 metres before touching home first in 2:07.70, with Corbeau, who became the first swimmer to break two minutes for the short course 200m breaststroke with his 1:59.52 time in Toronto last year, earning silver in 2:07.78.

Bronze went to Austria’s triple European Aquatics U23 champion Luka Mladenovic in 2:08.91.

Romania’s David Popovici qualified fastest into tomorrow night’s men’s 200m freestyle final in 1:44.56 from Germany’s world and Olympic 400m freestyle champion Lukas Martens on 1:44.79 and James Guy of Great Britain on 1:45.12.

Neutral Athletes B swimmers Pavel Samusenko and Kliment Kolesnikov topped the men’s 50m backstroke semi-final list in 24.03 and 24.14 respectively.

NAB’s Evgeniia Chikunova was fastest in the women’s 200m breaststroke semi-finals on 2:20.71 ahead of Great Britain’s 100m breaststroke champion Angharad Evans on 2:20.96.

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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics