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

Yefimova dived early on her leg in the women's 4x100 medley relay final however, which led to the disqualification of the Russian team. Britain (Gemma Spofforth, Kate Haywood, Francesca Halsall, Amy Smith) who finished behind Russia in second place with a time of 3:59.72 were given the gold medal.

"A great championship finish with a success for our team," said Francesca Halsall. "I'm pleased to have got two gold, two silver and one bronze, a medal tally I never expected. It's amazing."

Sweden (Henriette Stenkvist, Joline Hoestman, Therese Alshammar, Sarah Sjoestroem) won silver in 4:01.18 seconds while Germany (Jenny Mensing, Caroline Ruhnau, Daniela Samulski, Silke Lippok) took bronze with a time of 4:03.22.

Britain also won gold in the women's 400m freestyle. Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington who had finished a disappointing seventh earlier in the week in the 800 meter freestyle comfortably took gold with a time of 4:04.55, ahead of Ophelie Cyriell Etienne of France in 4:05.40.

"After an awful performance in the 800 meter free, this race was very important to me," Adlington said. "I was mentally strong enough to come back and I also noticed that the French girl was leading for a long time."

In the women's 50 meter freestyle final, Sweden's Therese Alshammar won gold with a time of 24.45 seconds, ahead of Hinkelien Schreuder of the Netherlands in 24.66 and Britain's Francesca Halsall, who won the 100 meter freestyle, in 24.67 seconds.

"It's going so well for me, so why should I retire? The 2012 Olympics are a great goal," Alshammar said.

Elsewhere on the final day of competition, Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape won gold for Italy in the 3 meter synchro springboard final, while Sascha Klein of Germany won gold in the men's 10 meter platform final.

Germany topped the diving medal table with 5 gold and 3 silver, followed by Ukraine (2-2-0), Italy (2-1-0), Russia (1-3-5), Sweden (0-1-0), Belarus (0-0-2), and Spain, Britain and Hungary (all 0-0-1).

In the synchronized swimming events, Russia won all four gold medals, while Spain and Ukraine won four silvers and four bronzes respectively.

In the open water swimming competitions, Italy topped the medals table with 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze, followed by Greece (1-3-1), Germany (1-2-1), Russia (1-0-2), Netherlands and Ukraine on one gold apiece and France (0-1-1).