The last race of the night was a thriller: the women's 4x200m freestyle relay won by France a hand a head of an unrested British quartet told the tale of where this event is going. It is likely to take a sub 7:50 to make the podium in Beijing, let alone what may be required for the gold. In the midst of it, Federica Pellegrini clocked 1:54.98, the fastest split ever, inside the 1:55.64 of Annika Lurz (GER), from Budapest 2006.

Here are the times in Eindhoven compared to the national records of each country before the race:

The French are now third best all-timer and the Brits fourth behind the 7:50.09 world record held by the USA since Melbourne 2007 and the 7:50.82 previous world record held by Germany.

Laure Manaudou got the French off to a 1:58.51 start (put her best time in and you have a world record), and Coralie Balmy notched up a 1:56.58 split ahead of Mylene Lazare's 1:59.39, before an unrested Alena Popchanka brought Gaul home in 1:57.61.

For Britain, Joanne Jackson kept as close as she could to Manaudou, with a 1:59.10 opener, before Melanie Marshall put in a 1:57.81, handing to teenager Ellen Gandy, with a solid 1:59.26, before Caitlin McClatchey produced the second-fastest split in the race, 1:56.19, to challenge for gold. The pool was just too short but the Brits, who flew in yesterday, will head home buoyed by their progress ahead of taper and Olympic trials the week after next.

Popchanka, coached in Britain by French husband Fred Vergnoux, said: ?It was a very tight decision but we got the edge at the end and claimed our first European title in the relay.' Vergnoux is coaching partner with Ben Titley, head of Britain's women relays, in the leadership group set up by performance director Michael Scott in readiness for Beijing.

The Brits flew in just for the relay and will fly out in the morning. There is heartening news back home: at least three women absent from Eindhoven could claim a place in the British quartet in Beijing with faster times than those seen here. As Marshall put it: 'Ellen's come in this time but it doesn't matter who's brought in [from the wider group training for the relay], we're a really together team and really proud. We came together as a unit and raised our game to get there tonight and that's what's going to put us in good stead for the future.' McClatchey added: 'We've worked so hard together as a team but never really fulfilled our potential. Today we did that an it feels fantastic.'

The Italian time was boosted by that blistering 1:54.98 from Pellegrini (second in) and helped by a 1:58.47 from Alessia Filippi. The Dutch relied on four good averages: Dekker's 1:59.39 lead-off boosted by a 1:57.86 from Femke Heemskerk before Marleen Veldhuis zoomed the Dutch back into contention with a 55.39 100m split before fading to a 1:58.70 split.

France celebrated more prizes for the treasury in the 200m breaststroke, though the gold was not that they had wanted. Yesterday, after Hugues Duboscq (FRA) had clocked 2:10.72 in morning heats of the 200m breaststroke, his championship record fell in 2:10.65 to Grigory Falko (RUS) in the first semi-final before Duboscq hit back with a 2:09.85, ahead of a 2:10.08 for Alex Dale One (NOR), winner of the 100m here. In the final Falko struck again with a 2:09.64 championship record that fell just 0.12sec shy of the European record set by Dimitri Komornikov (RUS) in 2003.

The race for podium places produced a blanket finish. Silver went to Dale Oen in 2:09.74 and bronze to Duboscq in 2:09.91. It was the first time three men have raced below 2:10 in the same race. Back in fifth was Olympic silver medal winner Daniel Gyurta (HUN) on 2:12.44 and working for a bigger moment.