Leon Marchand earned an audacious victory in the men’s 400m freestyle before helping France secure bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley as the hugely successful European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026 came to an end.
Huge cheers of “Leon, Leon, Leon” rang out once again from the packed stands in the Olympic Aquatic Centre as the home fans saluted the four-time Paris 2024 champion’s second individual win here after his 200m butterfly flourish.
Elsewhere in a tumultuous final session there were landmark achievements for Italy’s Simona Quadarella, who won the women’s 400m freestyle to secure a third distance event “triple”, and for Hungary’s Hubert Kos, who earned a third consecutive European men’s 200m individual medley title.
Lithuania’s 50m breaststroke world record holder Ruta Meilutyte also registered in the multiple winners list as she earned her third European title in that event by just 0.01.
Two more wins on the night secured Great Britain’s place at the top of the medals table with eight golds.
Keanna Macinnes was victorious in the women’s 200m butterfly gold before helping the women’s 4x100m medley relay team set a Championship record of 3:53.50.
Italy finished second in the medals table with six golds, with Neutral Athletes B third after securing five golds, the last of which came in the concluding men’s 4x100m medley, where they clocked 3:28.67, with Italy second in 3:28.86 and France third in 3:29.03.
With a total of 20 medals to Great Britain’s 14, Italy were winners of the Championship Trophy.
Lauren Cox, women’s 100m breaststroke winner Angharad Evans, Keanna Macinnes, fresh from her women’s 200m butterfly win and anchor leg swimmer Freya Colbert proved just too much in the women’s 4x100m medley for an Italian team who clocked 3:53.60.
That meant a second relay silver at these Championships for 19-year-old Sara Curtis, who also won a relay bronze, two individual bronzes a gold in the women’s 50m backstroke, where she set two world records. Bronze went to NAB in 3:53.79.
Marchand’s lingering and untimely hip adductor injury may have forced him to drop events involving breaststroke, but he has nevertheless made a huge impact at a home Championships where expectations of him remained sky high.
The 24-year-old Texas-based athlete leaves Paris with two individual golds, and a silver and bronze in relay racing.
He annexed another area of operation tonight with an inexorable victory in the relatively unfamiliar event of the men’s 400m freestyle, clocking a French record of 3:43.14 after leading from start to finish against a hugely talented field including Germany’s world and Olympic champion and world record holder Lukas Martens.
Marchand was never seriously challenged, with his powerful turns and lengthy underwaters setting him up again and again to advantage.
There had been an early pointer to his potential in this event in the form of his super-split of 1:43.76 recorded in helping France win men’s 4x200m freestyle silver on the opening night.
That promise was overwhelmingly confirmed in a final where Martens, who had only qualified eighth, came through for bronze in 3:44.57 behind Hungary’s Oliver Papai, who claimed silver in 3:44.46.
Quadarella won women’s 400m freestyle gold with a pulverising final 50m to earn a third European distance triple having already won the women’s 800m and 1500m freestyle.
The Italian had not been ahead in the race as the final turn arrived, but she overhauled Isabel Gose, double European gold medallist in open water swimming here, to finish comfortably clear in a Championship record of 4:01.34.
Gose earned her third distance silver in the pool as she clocked 4:02.41, with her 21-year-old team-mate Maya Werner, fastest qualifier, taking bronze in 4:03.73.
“I’m really happy as it was a close race and I didn’t expect this in the race,” Quadarella told European Aquatics. “It’s my third gold and I couldn’t ask for more.
“This is the most special because 400m is not my distance and it’s really difficult because of the speed. I’m very proud of me and all the hard work I’ve done.”
Kos secured a third consecutive European 200m individual medley title under heavy pressure in the final freestyle leg from Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez, who was fastest qualifier for the final in a Championship record of 1:56.61.
The 23-year-old from Budapest, who also won 200m backstroke gold earlier in the week, surpassed Gonzalez’s Championship mark as he touched for gold in 1:54.24, with the Spaniard taking silver in 1.54.44.
Duncan Scott was beaten to bronze by NAB’s 18-year-old European junior champion Mikhail Shcherbakov, who set a world junior record of 1:56.16, with the Briton clocking 1:56.32.
Meilutyte clocked 29.93 in the women’s 50m breaststroke as she touched just ahead of Italy’s Benedetta Pilato, who won this title in 2020.
Ireland’s Mona McSharry of Ireland, Paris 2024 100m breaststroke bronze medallist, who already had silver and bronze from the 100m and 200m breaststroke respectively, added another bronze to her collection, just 0.02 behind the champion.
Macinnes, who won double Commonwealth silver in Glasgow last month, earned her first European medal in winning the women’s 200m butterfly title in a time of 2:05.90.
Denmark’s defending champion Helena Bach took silver in 2:06.14, with bronze going to Spain’s Laura Cabanes in 2:07.21.
Ukraine’s 19-year-old Nikita Sheremet – what is it about this age and these Championships? – earned the first swimming medal of these Championships for his country – and it was golden as he clocked 21.13 in the opening men’s 50m freestyle.
NAB’s Egor Kornev, individual champion in the men’s 50m butterfly and silver medallist in the 100m freestyle, with additional gold and silver in relays, added one more silver – shared with Serbia’s Andrej Barna after both clocked 21.37.
Hungary’s 100m butterfly champion Kristof Milak was fourth in 21.46, breaking Laszlo Cseh’s 2009 national record.
Apostolos Christou earned the first gold of these Championships for Greece as he made a successful defence of his men’s 100m backstroke title.
Christou clocked 52.27 to beat Italy’s Paris 2024 champion Thomas Ceccon, winner of this event in Rome four years ago, by 0.01, with bronze going to NAB’s Pavel Samusenko, who recorded 52.27, with France’s world bronze medallist Yohann Ndoye-Brouard fourth in 52.71.
Men’s 50m freestyle para gold was won by The Netherlands’ Rogier Dorsman (S11), who had taken silver in the previous night’s 100m. He earned a total of 821 points.
The winner of that 100m, Denmark’s Alexander Hillhouse (S14), claimed 50m silver ahead of Portugal’s Marco Meneses (S11), who won his second bronze.
Gold in the women’s 100m free para final went to Defne Kurt of Turkiye ((S10), who scored 913 points.
Silver went to the previous night’s 50m gold medallist, S11 swimmer Irene van Drimmelen of The Netherlands, with her team-mate Liesette Bruinsma (S11) taking bronze.
Para swimmers operate within a classification system that categories their degree of impairment .Classes S1 to S10 involve decreasing degrees of physical impairment. Classes S11 to S13 deal with vision impairment, with S11 being the most severe. The S14 class relates to intellectual impairment.
In integrated racing the first swimmer home is not always the winner, as all participants are assessed according to a points system relating to their particular category.
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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics