• European Championships

Great Britain make history with more gold medals

Adam Peaty clinched his third gold medal of the week © Getty Images

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Great Britain ensured they would leave Berlin with their greatest ever European Championships medal haul after another successful day in the swimming pool.

Adam Peaty followed his record-breaking exploits with another gold medal on Saturday as he claimed the men's 50 metres breaststroke title, while Francesca Halsall led home a British one-two ahead of Georgia Davies in the women's 50m backstroke final.

Peaty set a new world record of 26.62 seconds in the semi-finals on Friday and was too good for the competition during the final as he clinched his third gold of the week in a time of 27 seconds flat.

"I'm really happy with winning that one," Peaty told BBC Sport. "It was a bit slower than my heats and the semis, but I was coming off a massive high last night - a high I've never experienced before.

"Hopefully come the Olympics I can fine-tune that and get stronger through the rounds."

The 19-year-old was not the only British winner on the penultimate day of the championships either.

Halsall's gold in the 50m backstroke was her second in Berlin having also won the 4x100m mixed medley relay alongside Peaty earlier this week in what was another world-record performance.

"I don't know how that happened," Halsall said. "It was just a fun event where I wanted to see how I could do.

"I was hoping to dip under 28 seconds, and I did that and managed to get a gold medal, so I can't complain. It's just on the day who gets their fingernails on the wall first and today it was me."

There was further good news as Davies - who won gold for Wales in the 50m backstroke at the Commonwealth Games - finished just one hundredth of a second behind her team-mate to take the silver.

Britain now boast six gold medals from the event and Halsall will go for more glory in the 50m freestyle after qualifying second fastest for the final.

Ben Proud will also contest a final on Sunday after qualifying second fastest from the semi-final of the 50m freestyle, while Adam Barrett just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the 100m butterfly.

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