The Dutch swimmer was hoping to add to the 5km title she earned yesterday in Loch Lomond.

Van Rouwendaal, the reigning Olympic champion over the distance, was the favourite to secure the title but faced strong resistance.

She was followed by Giulia Gabrielleschi and Rachele Bruni during the opening half of the race, the Italian duo coming through the halfway checkpoint just three seconds down.

While Bruni faded, Gabrielleschi remained on the toes of the leader for the majority of the event.

Van Rouwendaal was able to slowly edge clear of the Italian in the closing kilometre of the race to take the title in a time of 1 hour 54min 45.7sec.

It was the second time she had won the title in the event, having triumphed back in Berlin in 2014.

"Today was really different from yesterday's 5km," said van Rouwendaal.

"I managed to sprint from the start and leave some distance very soon then but today I just couldn't manage to detach from Gabrielleschi.

"I thought I might have done it after the 5km but it just didn't work, I accelerated and accelerated and didn't manage to leave her behind until the end where I put all my strength in my feet for the last sprint."

Gabrielleschi finished seven seconds behind the winner to take the silver medal. 

The podium was completed by van Rouwendaal’s team-mate Esmee Vermeulen, who finished 41 seconds behind the winner to secure the bronze medal.

Defending champion Bruni Italy ended outside the medal places, finishing 13 seconds back in fourth.

The men's 10km event concluded in dramatic circumstances, with a photo finish required to separate Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary and the fast finishing Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands.

Rasovszky had won the men's 5km title yesterday and led for the majority of today's race over double the distance.

Olympic champion Weertman steadily made his was through the field during the race, before a late surge saw him move level with his rival.

A photo finish was required with the two swimmers having touched the finish line almost simultaneously.

Following a brief delay,  Weertman was eventually seen to have touched first, enabling him to win the title for a third straight European Championships.

Weertman and Rasovszky were both given the same finishing time of 1:49:28.2.

Germany's Rob Muffels completed the podium in 1:49:33.7.

"We train for it every week because we know it comes down to the finish," said Weetman.

"Often it is so important to be strong at the finish and you can make a big difference there.

"I came here to win and even though Kristof was way, way ahead of us, I just kept pushing it and pushing it because I wanted to be first here. 

"And the touch was amazing so it was great."