Record and golds for GB relay team Bernal still leads as riders drop out

SWIMMING: Great Britain’s mixed 4x100 metre medley relay team broke the European record to clinch gold at the European Aquatics Championships in Hungary.

The quartet of Kathleen Dawson, Adam Peaty, James Guy and Anna Hopkin clocked a time of three minutes 38.82 seconds to beat Holland into second place.

Hopkin, who was well ahead when she embarked on the anchor leg, said: “These guys got me a pretty good lead, I really didn’t want to lose that.

“I definitely felt a little pressure, but I tried not to overthink it - I didn’t want to look at where anyone else in the race was and just focused on what I was doing.

“I was really happy with that. I’m building through the week so I was just glad to get a shot at it tonight.

“This relay, I know we’ve got a huge shot at Olympic gold, so it means a lot to be a part of it here. I think we can all get quicker going into the Olympics, so it’s really exciting going forward.”

There was also individual success for rising star Freya Anderson, the 20-year-old winning her first individual international medal with bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle.

CYCLING: Egan Bernal retained the pink jersey as Andrea Vendrame won an attritional stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia from the breakaway in Bagno di Romagna.

Crashes, illness and the affects of Wednesday’s frantic stage across the white gravel roads of Tuscany took their toll as six riders abandoned the race during the course of its second longest stage – covering 212km and 3,700 metres of climbing from Siena.

By the end of it there was no major change at the top of the general classification as the Ineos Grenadiers’ Bernal continues to lead by 45 seconds from Astana-Premier Tech’s Aleksandr Vlasov.

“I think today was a really hard day for everyone. We are happy it finished well.”

Today sees a pan-flat stage from Ravenna to Verona.