With one day of racing to go and a few more medal chances in prospect win the curtain-closing day of nine finals in the Paris pool, Great Britain leads the medals table with six golds atop 12 medals in all.

That tally grew by a gold in the Mixed 4x200m freestyle, when Jack McMillan, Matt Richards, Freya Colbert, and Freya Anderson, 25, set a championship record of 7mins 24.13, 1.3sec ahead of Germany, a neutral quartet third. The meet mark had been held at 7:26.67 by Britain since 2020.

That was the second of three victories for Britain in the five editions of the relatively new mixed (2 men, 2 women per quartet) event - and Anderson has anchored all three golds.

Victory in the men's 4x200 and the women's 4x200m last Monday confirmed Britain's strength in the longest relay in the pool, the men Olympic champions at the past two games, the women a growing force. The Mixed event, however, is not part of the Olympic program.

The 2026 Final:

Anderson recalled her first anchor back in 2018:

"My breakout sort of race was this race in 2018, which is kind of showing my age. I went a 1:55.8 there, and that was the only time I'd ever been under 1:56, and then just did it again then. So, I think we're back on track."

I note that at 25, she's a spring chicken, what with the bulk of some podiums, like the women's 50 free tonight, going to thirty somethings.

"There are also swimmers who've been good as a junior, like myself, and then sort of plateaued, and now some of them that are coming through the ranks again, so it's kind of inspiring to me. I just need a bit of luck on my side each season and hopefully things go well and I can still keep chipping away. Hopefully I've still got a bit left in me."

Asked whether the mixed event has a different dynamic to it than the men's and women';s events, Freya Colbert said:

"I always lead off the women's 4x200, and so that's actually only the second rolling 200 I've ever done, and the other one was in this event 4 years ago in Rome. So it's fun for me, it's like a slightly like different perspective."

At the end of a day brimming with enthusiastic crowd support, the session having started with a tribute and farewell to Florent Manaudou, who announced his second and final retirement this week, continued with raucous cheering of "Léon, Léon, Léon, Léon, Léon...:" and many more , and included loud appreciation for Johannes Liebmann's 14:26 World record in the 1500m freestyle, the Brit girls were asked whether such a great atmosphere helps. Says Anderson:

"It makes a difference for me 100%, especially when you're going last and the crowd does start to get a bit more hyped up. I need that to race well, and I think that's what got that swim out of me tonight. I remember I had my headphones in, and I took them off, and I was shocked the how loud it was. It gives you that much more adrenaline. It's so much fun."

Colbert added:

"I agree. Like, at this point in the meet, sometimes I'm like, oh, this is like my 5th 200 of the meet ... am I gonna have that adrenaline? There's often French team in that 4x200 event. There was tonight - and it was very loud; it definitely does help just lift that adrenaline and get that little bit extra out of yourself compared to if it is like a bit of a quieter crowd at some other meets."

The History File below ....