• Sarah Sjoestroem wins her 45th gold medal at a major championship with 50m freestyle win.
• Nicolo Martinenghi, an Italian, wins the men’s breaststroke sprint in 26.33 seconds.
• Anastasia Gorbenko keeps her 200m Individual Medley title for Israel.

On Tuesday, a number of world champions won European titles. In Rome, the Ukrainian Mykhailo Romanchuk beat Gregorio Paltrinieri in the men’s 1500m race, which was a big surprise.

The Italian started out fast, just like he did in June when he won the world title in Budapest. By halfway, he had a lead of more than a second, but the current European champion, Romanchuk, passed him in the 19th of 30 lengths and pulled away.

He beat Paltrinieri by 3.69 seconds, and as the silent Italian crowd cheered for a Ukrainian win, the winner stood on the lane rope at the Foro Italico pool and hit his chest with his fist.

It was the first swimming medal for Ukraine in Rome.

“These are hard times for me, especially mentally,” said Romanchuk, adding that he had been disappointed with his world championship and earlier 800m races in Rome. “I was mad at myself.”

On the day before she turned 29, Sarah Sjoestroem won her 45th gold medal at a major championship by winning the 50-meter freestyle.

In 23.91 seconds, Sjoestroem easily won her second gold medal of the championships.

Pole Katarzyna Wasick was second at 0.29sec.

At the world championships in Budapest in June, Sjoestroem won both events.

It was her 27th European long-course medal, breaking a tie for most by a single swimmer with the Russian Alexander Popov.

“I think my number of medals continue going up and I’m really enjoying myself here,” said the Swede.

“Now when I look up the stands and I feel the support and energy, I know why I’m doing this and why I want to go on.”

Kristof Milak, a Hungarian, also did a double at the worlds when he won the 200m butterfly to start the evening. He had won the 100-meter butterfly gold in Rome.

Milak won with a time of 1min 52.01sec, which was 1.67sec slower than the world record he set in Budapest but still good enough to leave his fellow countryman Richard Marton 2.77sec behind.

“My swim? Who cares?” said Milak. “The big story here is Richard’s silver. That’s something I’m really crazy about. We’ve been training together for years, before Tokyo he almost quit and stayed only to support my preps for the Games. But we convinced him he had a lot more in him.”

Nicolo Martinenghi, an Italian, won the men’s breaststroke sprint in 26.33 seconds, which was faster than his time at the world championships. He beat Simone Cerasuolo, another Italian, and German Lucas Matzerath, who came in third.

“It was a great race, it felt fantastic to be able to offer this race and this win to the best crowd in the world,” he said.

Martinenghi came in second in the 50-meter race in Budapest, but he won the 100-meter race, which he did again in Rome.

In 2 minutes and 10.92 seconds, the Israeli teen Anastasia Gorbenko kept her 200m Individual Medley title.

“I’m happy that I could close this extremely long season with a result like this,” she said.

The 100m backstroke was won by Margherita Panziera of Italy by 0.06 seconds over Medi Harris of Britain. Kira Toussaint was in third with a time of 0.13sec. Sivia Scalia, who was also from Italy, was fifth.

“I heard the crowd but I thought Scalia won. So I couldn’t believe it when I heard my name,” said the winner.

On the last leg of the mixed 200m freestyle relay, Freya Anderson pulled ahead to win her sixth medal of the championships and lead Great Britain to gold. Italy was third and France was second.

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