Teenagers steal the show in Budapest

BUDAPEST • Italy's Benedetta Pilato broke the women's 50-metre breaststroke world record at the European swimming championships in Budapest with a time of 29.30 seconds in Saturday's semi-finals.

The previous long-course best of 29.40sec was set by American Lilly King, the reigning Olympic 100m breaststroke champion, at the 2017 world championships in the same Budapest pool.

"I thought I might break the European record but definitely not the world record," said 16-year-old Pilato, who was runner-up to King at the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

However, in an effort to dampen expectations, she added: "No, I'm not the (Olympic champion) Adam Peaty of the women's breaststroke."

The 50m breaststroke, unlike the freestyle over the same distance, is not a race included in the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Another young swimmer also made headlines in the Duna Arena pool, with 17-year-old Israeli Anastasia Gorbenko denying Hungarian Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu a sixth successive 200m individual medley gold.

It was the first European women's title for an Israeli swimmer, with Britain's Abbie Wood taking silver and Hosszu the bronze.

"What an incredible feeling. I didn't believe that I could do it or be as successful in the senior competition as a Youth Olympic champion," said Gorbenko.

In the men's competition, Britain's world and Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty retained his 50m title - his third European gold of the week - with a winning time of 26.21sec.

"I don't want to sound arrogant, but that was an outstanding swim," he said after winning by half a body length. "It was almost perfect execution. If I can do these times in the 50m, it looks very promising for my other races and for the future."

Britain extended their lead over Russia at the top of the standings with nine golds, seven silvers and four bronzes.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS