Great Britain’s Ben Proud won the men’s 50m freestyle title at the European Aquatics Championships as he completed a stunning golden treble in Rome.
It is Proud’s third major triumph in two months, following victories at the World Championships in June and the Commonwealth Games earlier in August.
He is the first man to win those three major titles in the same year.
Proud, 27, clocked 21.58 seconds to edge Italy’s Leonardo Deplano to gold by just 0.02 in a thrilling race.
“To be standing here with a third gold medal round my neck, it’s a surreal feeling because the last 12 months have been exceptional,” he said.
“I’m just very, very grateful for everything that has happened this year.”
Compatriot Imogen Clark won women’s 50m breaststroke bronze in the following race.
Commonwealth silver medallist Clark finished in 30.31, 0.72 seconds behind Lithuania’s champion Ruta Meilutyte as Italy’s world record holder Benedetta Pilato won silver.
The 23-year-old Briton, who was told to stop swimming at a young age because of her epilepsy, tested positive for Covid and had to isolate in her room in Rome until Monday.
“It’s amazing. I never dreamed of doing this. It is an incredible way to finish the season,” said Clark.
In the women’s 200m butterfly final, Laura Stephens finished fourth and Keanna Macinnes placed sixth as Bosnian Lana Pudar won gold.
GB’s men’s 4x100m medley quartet of Luke Greenbank, James Wilby, Edward Mildred and Tom Dean placed fourth in a race dominated by hosts Italy, while Medi Harris, Kara Hanlon, Keanna Macinnes and Freya Anderson were fifth in the women’s final, won by Sweden.
Great Britain finished the Championships third in the swimming medal table, with four golds, five silvers and six bronzes.
Passion powering Proud to golds
Proud has won every major title available to him since his disappointment at finishing fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last summer – taking both the world short and long-course titles, in addition to his successes in Birmingham and Rome in the space of two weeks.
His 50m freestyle gold in Birmingham was his third successive Commonwealth title in the event, while he also won the 50m butterfly at the Games.
Winner of European gold in 2018 and silver in 2021, Proud had qualified fastest for the final in Rome in a time of 21.40 seconds.
Though he could not go as quick in the final, he came out on top in a close finish with Deplano, as Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev took the bronze.
Speaking following his semi-final win on Tuesday, Proud said his form this year had come from swimming “for the love of it”.
He told BBC Sport: “I think I have just been true to myself. Swimming is a love-hate sport. There have been times in my career where there has been more hate than love and I said to myself, if I am going to continue swimming, I need to love it.
“I’m doing what I want to do, how I want to do it, getting the right people around me and doing it for the love of it,” he added.
“For me this is my passion, I do it because I love it and the results are showing, so it’s good.”
He reiterated that following the final, and said on attempting to end his wait for Olympic glory in Paris: “So long as I love the sport I will keep swimming but I won’t hold myself to too high a standard, because that really threw me under the bus last year – trying to get something that wasn’t mine.”
