Team GB claim men's and women's 4x200m freestyle relay golds in Paris

Team GB won both the men's and women's 4x200m freestyle relays and collected three medals on the opening day of the European Aquatics Championships in Paris on 10 August 2026. Max Litchfield added a bronze in the men's 400m individual medley for Team GB.

James Guy, Duncan Scott, Matt Richards and Jack McMillan combined to win the men's 4x200m relay in 7:01.52, finishing ahead of France and Germany. The women's quartet of Freya Anderson, Leah Schlosshan, Abbie Wood and Freya Colbert took gold in 7:45.93, with Hungary second in 7:49.09 and Neutral Athletes B third in 7:49.13.

Max Litchfield finished third in the men's 400m individual medley in 4:11.58. Ilya Borodin won gold in 4:08.17, setting a championship record, and Italy's Alberto Razzetti was second in 4:10.40.

Jack Kelly, a New York native who is Irish qualified through his mother, broke the Irish 100m breaststroke record twice during the session. He swam 59.27 in Monday's heats and improved to 58.90 in the semi-final. Kelly finished second in the semi-final behind Italy's 2024 Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi, who won the race in 58.67. "To go under 59 has always been a dream of mine and to actually see it on the board is just like 'wow," said 23-year-old Kelly. "It's been an awesome start to the meet and I'm excited to see what I what I do next. "It was exciting, the energy was there and to feed off it was what I did, it's been a really cool environment. I can hear the guys, they've been very supportive, we're very close and I couldn't wish for better teammates; the environment is great and something that is really cool to be part of. "Tomorrow I'm going to take it out and go full throttle, that's my thing in the 100 and see what I got."

In the second semi-final, Great Britain's Adam Ramsay-Peaty, who won silver at Paris 2024, finished first in 58.94. His Team GB team-mate Filip Nowacki was second in 59.03, a 100m record for a Jersey swimmer. The semi-final pairled the field into the closing stages of the session.

Belfast's Lottie Cullen, representing Ireland and based at the National Centre Ulster, produced a personal best of 2:12.22 in the 200m backstroke semi-finals but finished sixth and did not progress to the final.

The 100m breaststroke final is scheduled to take place on Tuesday at 17:48 BST.