French teenage sensation Laure Manaudou ended a stunning European Championships with a world record and a record-equalling gold medal haul.

The 19-year-old, who went into the final day with three golds and a European record to her credit, set a new world record in the women's 400m freestyle.

The world and Olympic champion bettered her own mark of 4:03.03 set on May 12 in Tours, France - when she broke Janet Evans' 18-year-old mark - with a new time of 4min 2.13sec.

The victory was her fourth of the Championships, equalling the record haul achieved by Germany's Otto Gewininger in 1981 and Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi 13 years ago.

However, she missed out on breaking the record with a fifth title as the French women's 4x100m medley relay team finished third behind Great Britain and Germany.

"I didn't really have the world record in mind," said Manaudou after her 400m freestyle swim.

"All I wanted was to win gold. I am surprised. The record is a bonus."

She finished six seconds clear of British pair Joanna Jackson and Caitlin McClatchey who took silver and bronze respectively.

Manaudou was not the only swimmer marking her campaign with glorious success as German Britta Steffen claimed her third gold in winning the 50m freestyle ahead of Sweden's Therese Alshammer and Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands.

Steffen had set the first world record of the Championships on Wednesday in winning the 100m freestyle and she missed out on also equalling the Championship record haul of gold medals when Germany lost out in the relay by just 11 hundredths of a second to Britain.

Comeback queen Otylia Jedrzejczak was also celebrating after winning her second gold medal.

Poland's Jedrzejvzak added 200m butterfly gold - the event at which she is the world record holder as well as world and Olympic champion - to the 200m freestyle gold she won on Saturday.

Almost a year ago, the 22-year-old was involved in a serious car crash in which her 19-year-old brother Szymon died after the car she was driving ploughed into a tree in Plonsk, central Poland.

She was also seriously injured in the crash. But she cruised to the gold medal nearly two seconds clear of Italian pair Francesca Segat and Caterina Giacchetti.

There was another gold for Poland as Bartosz Kizierowski won the men's 50m freestyle while the other two gold medals of the day were won by Russia, in the men's 400m medley relay and through Elena Bogomazova in the women's 50m breaststroke.

Remy Zaka
AFP