French swimmer Alain Bernard defended his European 100m freestyle crown yesterday while team-mate Sebastien Rouault powered to victory in the 800m free for a double gold showing for France.

Bernard, the reigning Olympic champion in the event, clocked 48.49 seconds over the two laps of the pool, with Russian Evgeny Lagunov taking silver (48.52) and another Frenchman, William Meynard, winning bronze (48.56).

The French duo’s podium showing pushed their country’s medal tally to 15, including six golds, and made up for their silver-medal finish behind Russia in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

“I was very strained during the heats and the semi-finals, and surprisingly not at all before this final,” said the 27-year-old Bernard.

“To win the race you also need a certain luck. I’m very happy for William to get bronze.”

In the men’s 800m freestyle, Rouault powered to glory in 7min 48.28sec despite complaining about having already put in a lot of pool time.

“Before this final I had already competed over 4,600 metres so I felt a bit tired,” he said.

“My plan was to stay in the field and then put everything into the last lap.”

Germany’s Christian Kubusch took silver in a new German record of 7:49.12 with Italian Samuel Pizzetti winning bronze, 0.82sec adrift.

Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem, timing 57.32sec, edged gold in the women’s 100m butterfly from British rival Francesca Halsall (57.40), with veteran Therese Alshammar taking bronze for Sweden.

“My whole season before the European Championships was really bad, and I’m very surprised I am about my results here in Budapest,” admitted Sjoestroem.

Russia’s Anastasia Chaun took gold in the women’s 200m breaststroke in 2min 23.50sec ahead of Norwegian Sara Nordenstam with Rikke Moeller Pedersen of Denmark taking bronze.

“I had never reckoned with a medal before the European Championships,” said Chaun.

“I certainly benefited from the absence of my team-mate Yulia Efimova in this event. She was ruled out of the 200 metres because of a shoulder injury.”