Malik's time of 1min 51.10sec was an improvement on his previous best at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow when he swam 1:52.79.

He was less than half a second away from his world record set at the World Championships in 2019 in Gwangju.

Italy's Federico Burdisso and Hungarian Tamas Kenderesi completed the podium, finishing more than three seconds behind the world champion.

Antani Ivanov of Bulgaria narrowly missed the bronze by less than a tenth of a second.

Ukraine's Mykhaylo Romanchuk claimed the gold medal in the men's 1,500m freestyle by three seconds in a time of 14:39.89.

After a quiet start to his race, the Ukrainian overtook the early leader and eventual silver medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy.

A second Italian, Domenico Acerenza, claimed the bronze medal more than 10 seconds behind his compatriot and just ahead of France's Damien Joly.

Russia's Kliment Kolesnikov set a new Championship record in the men's 100m freestyle, finishing in a time of 47.37sec.

He claimed the gold medal in a tight finish with Italy's Alessandro Miressi, who was also inside the old record of France's Alain Bernard, who clocked a time of 47.50 back in 2008.

Andrei Minakov of Russia, the junior world record holder, won bronze ahead of Hungary's Nandor Nemeth.

Following that, Sweden's Sophie Hansson won the women's 100m breaststroke gold medal in 1:05.69, but the fight for the silver and bronze was incredibly narrow.

Less than three tenths of a second separated second from sixth - but it was the Italian pair of Arianna Castiglioni and Martina Carraro who completed the podium ahead of Russia's Yuliya Efimova and British duo Molly Renshaw and Sarah Vasey.

European record holder Kira Toussaint of The Netherlands claimed the women's 50m backstroke gold medal ahead of Britain's Kathleen Dawson.

Toussaint won in 27.36 - a tenth up on Dawson who broke the Championship record yesterday in 27.19.

Dawson won silver and Toussaint's compatriot Maaike de Waard claimed bronze.

To end the night, the Russian quartet of Martin Malyutin, Aleksandr Shchegolev, Alexander Krasnykh and Mikhail Vekovishchev broke Britain's Championship record in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, with a new best of 7:03.48.

The team took nearly two seconds off the previous best time.

Britain's Thomas Dean, Matthew Richards, James Guy and Duncan Scott claimed silver in a time faster than their 2018 effort, and the Italian team of Stefano Ballo, Matteo Ciampi, Marco De Tullio and Stefano Di Cola won bronze.