体坛英语新闻：French joy on final day of European swimming championships

BUDAPEST, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Gold medals won by Frederick Bousquet and the men's 4x100 medley relay team gave France overall top spot in the medals table the European swimming championships which closed here on Sunday.

France finished the meet with 8 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze in the pool events, ahead of Russia in second place with 7-4-1. Britain came third with 6-6-6, while hosts Hungary collected 6-4-3 to finish in fourth place. Sweden (3-3-4), Germany (2-5-2), Denmark (2-2-2), Italy (2-0-4), Norway (2-0-3), Belarus (1-1-0), Spain (1-0-3) and Poland (1-0-1) completed the top 12 in the table.

Bousquet, who set a new meet record in the 50m freestyle semifinal, won the final with a time of 21.49 seconds. Stefan Nystrand of Sweden took silver in 21.69 seconds while Bousquet's compatriot Fabien Gilot came third in 21.76 seconds.

"I came to these European Championships to win the 50 meter freestyle and I did it," Bousquet said.

In the men's 4x100 medley relay, an unstoppable French team (Camille Lacourt, Hugues Duboscq, Frederick Bousquet, Fabien Gilot) set a new championship record of 3:31.32 seconds to cap a magnificent week for French swimming.

"My obligation was to retain the lead given over to me by Lacourt, because Bousquet and Gilot already competed in the 50 meter finals this afternoon," Hugues Duboscq said. "Our entire French swimming team couldn't have dreamed of a better conclusion."

Russia (Stanislav Donets, Roman Sludnov, Evgeny Korotyshkin, Evgeny Lagunov) claimed silver in 3:33.29 seconds while the Netherlands (Nick Driebergen, Lennart Stekelenberg, Joeri Verlinden, Sebastiaan Verschuren) took bronze with a time of 3:33.99.

Hungary capped a marvelous week in the pool with a double gold and silver medal haul. In the men's 400 meter individual medley, local hero Laszlo Cseh cruised to victory in a time of 4:10.95 seconds ahead of David Verraszto who timed 4:12.96. Gal Nevo of Israel took bronze in 4:15.10 seconds.

"I knew that I would not have to do too much to win this race. This is why I swam very relaxed on the last 100 meters," Cseh said.

The raucous crowd also cheered home a Hungarian one-two in the women's 200 meter butterfly final. Katinka Hosszu was in fourth position after the first leg and only overtook her compatriot Zsuzsanna Jakabos in the final 50 meters in a thrilling finish to claim gold in 2:06.71 seconds ahead of Jakabos in 2:07.06.

"At the 150 meter turn I put everything I had into it. I believed I could catch up with Zsuzsanna, so for my last event at these championships I am very happy for the Hungarians that we finished one and two," Hosszu said.

It was a day of mixed emotions for Yulia Yefimova. The Russian won gold in the women's 50 meter breaststroke final, her second of the week, with a new championship record time of 30.29 seconds. Britain's Kate Haywood won silver in 31.12 seconds while Jennie Johannson of Sweden in 31.24 seconds.