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Italian teenager Sara Curtis broke the women's 50m backstroke world record at the European championships with a blistering swim in Paris on Wednesday.The 19-year-old clocked 26.63sec in winning her semi-final, bettering the previous mark set by Australia's Kaylee McKeown three years ago by 0.23sec.Curtis took bronze in the women's 100m freestyle on Tuesday, but will now be a strong favourite in Thursday's 50m back final.She adds the world record to the short-course European record she set in the event in Poland last year.A year after giving birth to her first child, Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom was crowned European champion in the 50m butterfly for the sixth time.The three-time Olympic champion, who has held the world record in the event since 2014, won the final with a time of 25.05 seconds in Paris.She secured her 18th European title and now boasts a total of 99 international medals since making her debut at the age of 14 at the European championships in Rome.In the final, the 32-year-old finished ahead of Belgium's Roos Vanotterdijk in 25.12 and fellow Swede Sara Junevik who clocked 25.51.Romanian star David Popovici secured his third consecutive European 100m freestyle title with a championship record of 46.56.Russian Egor Kornev, who won 50m butterfly gold on Tuesday, had to settle for silver, with Hungary's Kristof Milak third.Popovici, 21, took Olympic bronze in the 100m free two years ago in Paris and won gold in the 200m.Hungary's Hubert Kos won the European men's 200m backstroke gold to add to his Olympic and world titles in the event.The 23-year-old from Budapest, who achieved a new European record over the distance in Tuesday's semi-finals, clocked 1min 53.08sec to take gold.Kos won the Olympic title in Paris two years ago and the world title in 2023 and 2025, but had never won the continental trophy.Greece's Apostolos Siskos took silver in 1min 53.81sec and Italian Thomas Ceccon bronze with 1:53.96.Britain's Angharad Evans claimed her first European title in the women's 100m breaststroke with a championship record time of 1:04.87, continuing her good form after she won two golds at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. 

His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis MBE earned a clean sweep of race victories in storm to an emphatic victory in the Extreme class at the 44th Annual Offshore World Championship in Florida on Sunday afternoon.After dominating Wednesday’s Truman Waterfront Cup and cruising to victory in Friday’s Southernmost Continental Championship, they added a win in the Conch Republic Championship finale to the list to win the Extreme class by 43 points.The duo had taken a 22-point lead over the American Custom Marine duo of Jeff McCann and Mickael Knoblock into the finale, where double points were on offer and the pressure of making a mistake and undoing all the hard work intensified.With support from Qatar’s Ministry of Sport and Youth, Sheikh Hassan and Curtis pushed the Mercury-engined Spirit of Qatar 96 MTi catamaran hard in calm conditions in the final race and then had to ease slightly on lap five with a minor overheating issue. The duo managed their pace over the remaining four laps to win the third race in a time of 22min 53.1sec with a winning margin of 3min 14.8sec.“Three out of three,” enthused Sheikh Hassan. “First position in all the races. Weather conditions were excellent. It was very calm today and we had a good one. We had a slight overheat on lap five and had to slow down a little and then push back again. Overall, we are happy and the crew are happy with the results. After 11 years of not participating, we come in and do a clean sweep...“At the same time, I would like to thank the Ministry of Youth and Sport for being the official sponsor, Simrad Navigation and to Mercury Racing for all their support on the engine back-up and set-up. Also, thanks to Extreme Marine from Dubai for supplying us the needed spare parts on site.”Ends