It proved a successful race for the Hynd family with Sam's younger brother Oliver scooping silver in his first international competition, while world champion Thomas Young clinched bronze.

Sam Hynd dominated the final as he claimed victory in 4min 29.18sec before Oliver Hynd and Young both came home in personal bests of 4:32.16 and 4:32.70 respectively.

"I'm really chuffed," Sam Hynd said.

"It was a fantastic race but everything went to plan for me and I felt really good out there and I'm happy to have kept my title.

"The time was good - sub 4:30 is a good time to be hitting.

"I'm getting back on track now.

"It was great to have the competition from my two teammates pushing me along as well."

Paralympic champion Heather Frederiksen (pictured), who is making her return to competitive swimming following a drug ban, won her second gold of the Championships as she cruised to victory in the S8 400m freestyle in 4:58.80.

"It was good to go out there and swim fast and comfortable and still break the five minutes so I am really pleased," she said.

Emma Hollis knocked more than two-and-half seconds off her personal best as she followed Frederiksen home for silver in 5:24.48, while Britain's Charlotte Henshaw clocked 5:39.91 to finish fifth.

The women's 34 point 4x100m freestyle relay, which featured Louise Watkin, Lauren Steadman, Claire Cashmore and Susie Rodgers, saw Britain secure the gold medal with a new European record of 4:27.53, while world champion Matt Walker defended his European S7 50m freestyle title with a confident swim for Britain's fourth gold.

Walker powered clear to win in 29.21 with Jonathan Fox repeating his result from the last Europeans, winning silver in 29.81.

Elsewhere, newcomer Rodgers broke her own British record to bag silver in the S7 50m freestyle in 33.99 while Anthony Stephens also won silver in the men's S5 50m backstroke in a time of 42.75.

Ellie Simmonds won the bronze medal in the women's S6 50m freestyle while Louise Watkin won the bronze medal in the women's SB9 100m breaststroke.

Hannah Russell won the bronze medal in the women's S12 100m butterfly as she broke the British record with a time of 1:11.13, while the men's 34 point 4x100m freestyle relay, which featured Fox, Sean Fraser, James Crisp and Robert Welbourn, secured bronze with a time of 3:57.79.

National performance director John Atkinson said: "The men's S8 400m freestyle saw three of our swimmers win the medals and to get a clean sweep at the beginning of the night is a great to start with.

"It was a quick race and all of the medallists' times were quicker than at the World Championships last year.

"There were two one-twos for us, Heather became our first double gold medallist and the 34 point relay was great to end on and it has been good to see so many Brits making the podium.

"We now have 14 different swimmers with medals on the necks and that is a good three days' work."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
July 2011: Watkin spearheads British charge on day two of IPC Swimming European Championships
July 2011: Simmonds leads British gold rush as IPC Swimming European Championships get underway