BUDAPEST - France won two out of four golds at the European Swimming Championships in Budapest on Friday, the 5th day of the tournament.

The 1500m European champion Sebastien Roult confirmed his supremacy in the long distance events and won the men's 800m freestyle final with a time of 7:48.28, a new competition record, ahead of Christian Kubusch of Germany and Italy's Samuel Pizzetti with 7:49.94. The former champion for this event, Gergo Kis of Hungary was 4th in 7:51.93, Pal Joensen of Faroer Islands, a silver medallist in the 1500m, was 5th (7:53.11) and European record holder Federico Colbertaldo just 6th (7:54.84).

Anastasia Chaun of Russia won her first major international medal after she touched 1st in the women's 200m breaststroke in a new Meeting record of 2:23.50, taking advantege of Zueva's defection in the event, as she confirmed later: "I never got a medal before this Europeans, although I took advantage over Anastasia, who defeated because of a shoulder injury."

Sara Nordestam won the silver medal with 2:24.42 and Rikke Moeller Pedersen bronze in 2:24.99.

Title-holder Alain Bernard of France cruised to victory in the men's 100 freestyle final. He finished in 48.49s, just 3 hundreths of a second ahead of the Russian Evgeny Lagunov and 7/100 compatriot William Meynard, who raises on the podium in the first international final.

"I was lucky in winning this race, I never felt good shape during heats and semi-finals. And I am very happy for William." said Bernard.

Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden defended her title in the women's 100m butterfly winning in a time of 57.32 with silver going to Francesca Halsall in 57.40, while 50m butterfly European champion Therese Alshammar managed bronze in 57.80.

In other highlights, Federica Pellegrini was the fastest swimmer to enter the 200m final, with 1:56.53, a new competition record, which had stood since 2002 to Franziska Van Almsick when she won gold at the European championships in Berlin.

Finally, Aliaksandra Herasimenia set a new championship record of 27.98 in the women's 50m backstroke.

France tops the medal tally with 6 gold medals, well ahead of Great Britain and Hungary at four.

NOTE: two silver and no bronze medals were awarded in the women’s 100m breatstroke.