Great Britain's men's 4x100m medley relay team have revealed their delight at the performance of Team GB's swimmers at the inaugural European Games in Baku.
The final swimming event of the tournament saw GB's team - Luke Greenbank, Charlie Attwood, Duncan Scott and Martyn Walton - hold off a late challenge from Poland to secure a silver medal behind Russia with a time of 3:39.01.
The performance took Team GB's total haul from the pool to 23 medals, including seven golds, while Russia managed to collect 42 medals, topping the podium an impressive 23 times.
Earlier in the night, Scott had claimed gold in the 200m freestyle, while Attwood improved on his fourth-place finish in the 200m breaststroke from Wednesday to pick up a bronze in the 100m.
Sports Mole caught up with the team shortly after the final event to dissect the five days of competition in Azerbaijan's capital.
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How are you feeling after that silver?
Scott: "I think we're all absolutely delighted with that. A great way to finish off the meet and it's been a great meet for Team GB here in the pool. So yeah, a great way to finish off the session for GB I think. That's the joint most medals we've won in one session."
For the relays, you have a 100% record of getting a medal in them...
Scott: "We were just discussing that, actually. I think that must be an 'all in a team' thing, that chemistry, coming together and improving."
Happy with the time on that one?
Walton: "We don't analyse times, we just go in and try and swim as fast as we can."
Scott: "Charlie kept telling me 'watch your finish, watch your finish'."
Attwood: "Yeah, our finish is a bit dodgy at the moment!"
Scott: "We still won a medal!"
Martyn, you had to hold off Poland in that last leg. How aware were you of how close they were?
Walton: "I wasn't having the best time on that last 50m, I'm not going to lie to you. I didn't feel like I was kicking, and I could see him catching me, so I just put my head down for the last 15m, which is something I don't usually do. Yeah, a bit of a disappointment with that swim but overall, I don't think we could have done much more than silver because the Russians were quite far ahead."
What was going through your guys' minds when Poland were catching up?
Attwood: "Don't die!"
Scott: "I was thinking 'Please Martyn, come on Martyn! Please!'"
Walton: "It's been a tough week!"
You were the fastest qualifiers. Were you expecting to medal?
Scott: "We changed our whole lineup from the heats, which we were quite lucky to do. Luckily in the heats we had Luke (Davies), who is great at the 200m breaststroke so we've obviously got a confident breaststroker, we had Joe (Hulme) who was fifth in the 200m backstroke, Cameron (Kurle) does the 100m free and Kyle (Chisolm) did the 200m fly. So we had great replacements this morning and we all luckily had a rest this morning."
How was the gold for you earlier, Duncan?
Scott: "It was good. I think the main thing is that the team got one to touching at Russia, which is nice for once. It was great. Well done to Cameron, who had his first time under 1:49."
Is it better to be on the podium alongside a teammate?
Scott: "Yeah, you can share the moment together so that's definitely good. This is the first team I've ever been on with Cameron. He's a great guy and a good swimmer."
Charlie - it was a bronze for you earlier. What are your thoughts on that performance?
Attwood: "I'm really happy with that. I PBed again from the semi-finals. I can't ask for any more. I was a little bit disappointed after the 200m, so I set myself the challenge of not coming fourth."
What is the goal for next year?
Attwood: "I haven't thought of any goals for next season, actually, so I'll have to sit down with my coach and think of potential goals."
Barney Corkhill
