Ask those who crunch the data in the depths of British Swimming and they mention Freya Anderson with a mixture of glee and optimism.

Just 17, the statuesque world junior champion is no longer one merely for the future. Her present looks pretty rosy too. And in earning in Glasgow the first senior gold medal of what many forecast will be a formidable career, few will doubt that she has the temperament to thrive in the heat of battle.

Granted the concluding leg in Great Britain’s 4x100 mixed relay line-up at the European Swimming Championships, one could judge the teen favourably by the company kept. Adam Peaty, Georgia Davies and James Guy were already champions last weekend. Anderson had bronze but showed immense lustre in calmly cementing a refreshed continental record of 3 min 40.18 sec, even as the Russian anchor, Vladimir Morozov, chased her down ferociously.

Georgia Davies delights on Glasgow return amid doubts over Peaty’s record Read more

“I felt like I was getting hunted down by a few of the men,” she said. “But you get your head down for the team. It worked out well.”

Peaty was supremely confident of victory, so much so that he eased up to save a little for 50m breaststroke. Athletes are used to compartmentalising. Hence the controversy of 24 hours before and the revelation that the world record he established in the 100m final had been increased by 0.1 sec due to faulty timing was not even a minimal distraction. “I haven’t broken it by that much but it means next time it becomes a little bit easier to break,” he said. “There is no negativity around it. I don’t think there will be an issue ratifying it at all.”

James Wilby, runner-up to Peaty in his latest historic endeavour, added a second silver in the 200m breaststroke with Russia’s Anton Chupkov winning in a European record of 2:06.80, and the defending champion, Ross Murdoch, missing bronze to Italy’s Luca Pizzini by one-hundredth of a second.

Alys Thomas landed bronze in the 200m butterfly, won by Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas, while there was bronze for Max Litchfield in the 200m individual medley in a firm sign that he has recovered from a problematic shoulder injury. Elsewhere Guy and Duncan Scott progressed into Tuesday’s200m freestyle final with the latter just scraping through as the eighth qualifier.

Meanwhile Katie Archibald must wait a little longer to make it a round dozen titles from the European Cycling Championships after earning silver in the omnium. The Scot was beaten by Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands, who simply had more vigour in the series of sprints at the Chris Hoy Velodrome, prevailing with 156 points to her rival’s 144 following the 20km points race.

Sign up to The Recap, our weekly email of editors’ picks.

“There wasn’t much I could do,” the dethroned champion said. “I realised early on that I didn’t have the speed on Kirsten. Maybe if I’d been a bit more sensible about it but I don’t know what I could have changed tactically.

“I wasn’t fast enough there and I was never going to get the space or the lap gain. Maybe I let it get in my head and I didn’t fight as much as I should have. Then there were a few moments with flipping and Kirsten sticking to my wheel, I felt I was ricocheting. I didn’t feel fantastic about that.”

She will return on Tuesday for the madison in tandem with Laura Kenny and hope there is more in the tank. “It is 120 laps. Laura and I are a pretty formidable team.”

Laura Kenny strikes European gold again despite sleepless night Read more

Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wood took bronze in the men’s madison, courtesy of a ferocious final sprint to trail only Germany and Belgium. “Ollie just let it out before my change coming in with a lap to go,” Hayter said. “I saw we had a gap and I just paced my efforts and I knew if we could just hold that gap we would get the last sprint.”

Jack Carlin missed out on a medal in the men’s sprint, beaten in the bronze race by his Dutch rival Harrie Lavreysen in the deciding leg of their best-of- three contest. “I’ve been better,” the 21-year-old Scot said.

“It has been a long day. As expected it was going to be tough throughout the day and my legs just weren’t there.” Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands routed Germany’s Stefan Botticher for gold.