Adam Peaty, Hannah Miley and Sarah Vasey all struck gold as British swimmers came away with eight medals on the second night of the Seven Hills meet in Rome.
Peaty and Vasey won their respective 50m Breaststroke races – the latter heading a British one-two with Imogen Clark – and Miley took the 400m Individual Medley.
Nick Grainger was second in the 200m Freestyle, one place ahead of Duncan Scott with Rosie Rudin (400m Individual Medley) and Tim Derbyshire (1500m Freestyle) also taking bronze at the Foro Italico.
The three-day event is giving the British team the chance to race against quality opposition for the final time ahead of the World Championships in Budapest next month.
Peaty won the 100m Breaststroke on the opening night and he was clearly happy with tonight’s outcome, looking up at the board with a clench of the fist.
“I’m very satisfied,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d go that fast so it’s great to enjoy the crowd and get it done.
“It’s up there so unrested, unshaven, it’s looking good.
“I’ll most likely go quite fast in Budapest, that’s given me a lot of confidence and hopefully I can go under that magic 26.4.”
Vasey and Clark train together alongside Peaty under the stewardship of Mel Marshall at the National Centre Loughborough, a set-up that is bearing constant fruit.
Vasey took bronze in the 100m on Friday as well as gold in today’s breaststroke dash and will next month make her senior debut in Hungary.
“I seem to be in a good place for Worlds, this is my last competition before Worlds. So things are looking good which is nice,” said Vasey.
Clark added: “We are used to racing each other so it’s just fun really.”
Miley went ahead with her customary strong breaststroke leg and held off the fast-finishing Mary-Sophie Harvey of Canada for victory in the long medley.
The Scot, now training under her father Patrick at the University of Aberdeen, will compete in her fifth World Championships in Budapest and she was happy with her progress with the meet just four weeks away.
“I am happy that it is a lot better than what I felt at Mare Nostrums. They just felt like I was swimming six feet under the water so I was just dragging myself through - here I was a bit more on the surface, a bit more myself.
“It’s good, it’s kind of where I was wanting it to be, I was wanting it to be 4:38 or quicker so I need to look at the splits and see how I swam it and if it is how I think it is I have kind of ticked the boxes for this meet.”
Rudin, who will also make her senior GB debut in Hungary, was fourth at 350m before displacing team-mate Abbie Wood for bronze.
“Obviously we are in really tough training at the moment, our coach has been absolutely battering us so it’s nice to be able to go a really quick time under these conditions.”
Grainger was taken aback by his silver in the 200m Freestyle, saying: “I’m really surprised that I am swimming this fast at this time of the season, we are in really hard training.”
He will travel to Budapest as part of the 4x200m Freestyle Relay with Scott set for outings in both relay and individual events while team-mate Stephen Milne was fourth.
He said: “It’s really good. We want to race the best guys in the world and we did it in Japan and we are doing it here again. That is what I want, I want exposure, I want to race the best guys in the world. No matter what situation I am in and what form I am in.”
Derbyshire’s time of 15:02.12 was a six-second personal best and of where it had come from he said:
“I have no idea. I’ve been training really well since I moved to Bath National Centre.
“I got ill at trials so I didn’t get chance to race the 1500 so I didn’t get chance to make the worlds team.
“But I am really happy with that – I think I am in good shape and I hope to break 15 minutes this summer.”
There were also fourth places for Wood (400m Individual Medley), Chris Walker-Hebborn and Georgia Davies (both 100m Backstroke) and Charlotte Atkinson (100m Butterfly).
Rachael Kelly was sixth in the 100m Butterfly, Kathleen Dawson and Jessica Fullalove were fifth and eighth respectively in the 100m Backstroke and Max Litchfield took seventh in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley.