World record holder Ceccon edged a thrilling battle with Greece's Apostolos Christou by just 0.03sec at Foro Italico, clocking 52.21 to add to his gold at the World Championships in Budapest.

France's Yohann Ndoye-Brouard took bronze in 52.92.

Ceccon's victory was Italy's 12^th in the swimming discipline of the Championships, and he then helped his country to make it 13 in the men's 4x100m medley relay.

He took the first leg, and was followed by 50m and 100m breaststroke champion Nicolò Martinenghi, Matteo Rivolta and Alessandro Miressi.

The Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists finished in a Championships record time of 3min 28.46sec, followed by France in 3:32.50 and Austria in 3:33.28.

Hungary finished swimming competition at the Championships with five golds, Hubert Kós adding their latest in the men's 200m individual medley.

After two fourth-place finishes in Rome, Kós triumphed in 1:57.72 to stave off 400m individual medley champion Alberto Razzetti of Italy by 0.10, with Portugal's Gabriel Lopes completing the top three in 1:58.34.

World Championships and Commonwealth Games gold medallists Ben Proud provided Britain's fourth victory in the pool in the Italian capital, winning the men's 50m freestyle by just 0.02 ahead of Italy's Leonardo Deplano with his time of 21.58.

Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece was third in 21.75.

Britain's gold medal tally was matched by Sweden, for whom Sarah Sjöström's anchor leg eased them to victory in the women's 4x100m medley relay.

Sjöström broke the all-time record for the most European Championships medals yesterday and extended that to 28, following on from team-mates Hanna Rosvall, Sophie Hansson and Louise Hansson to help the Swedish team finish in 3:55.25.

France were second in 3:56.36, while The Netherlands took third in 3:57.01.

Isabel Marie Gose and Lukas Märtens provided golds for Germany on the final day of swimming.

Gose won the women's 400m freestyle in 4:03.13, beating Italy's Simona Quadarella by 0.64 and Hungary's Ajna Késely by 3.87.

Märtens' time of 3:42.50 in the men's 400m freestyle was a Championships record, and propelled him to victory by 1.43 over Switzerland's Antonio Djakovic.

Henning Mühlleitner doubled Germany's presence on the podium in 3:44.53.

Rūta Meilutytė of Lithuania added to her World Championships victory in the women's 50m breaststroke by claiming the European title in the same event.

She clocked 29.59, with Italy's Benedetta Pilato coming through in second in 29.71 and Britain's Imogen Clark in third with a time of 30.31.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's 16-year-old sensation Lana Pudar was the other winner on the final day of swimming competition, triumphing in the women's 200m butterfly in 2:06.81.

Helena Rosendahl Bach of Denmark took silver in 2:07.30, with bronze going to Italy's Ilaria Cusinato in a time of 2:07.77.

Diving continued at the Championships, with Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix adding to her two Commonwealth Games gold by claiming victory for Britain in the women's 10m platform.

Her final dive of 76.80 helped her climb into first place with a total of 333.60, leapfrogging Ukraine's Sofia Lyskun, who finished with 329.90.

Germany's Christina Wassen took third with 314.10.

Lou Massenberg and Tina Punzel had earlier claimed mixed 3m springboard synchronised gold for Germany with a score of 294.69.

Britain’s Grace Reid and James Heatly took second with 290.76, with Italy's Chiara Pellacani and Matteo Santoro placing third with 283.56.

The Championships continues tomorrow with the women's 3m springboard synchronised and men's 1m springboard diving finals and the start of high diving competition.