Thirteen-year-old Plymouth schoolboy Tom Daley won the European platform title in Eindhoven.

Daley, who turns 14 on May 21, shot from sixth to first with the fourth of his six final dives and survived a late charge from German World Cup champion Sascha Klein to win by just over four points.

"If somebody had told me at Christmas I would be a European champion at Easter my answer would have been 'go away'," Daley said.

"It was a perfect competition for me. If it seems as if I was without nerves I can tell you I have nerves and they were quite tense."

Daley, who qualified for the Beijing Olympics in August by finishing seventh at last month's World Cup in the Chinese capital, earned four perfect 10s with his fourth-round armstand back triple somersault for a score of 94.40 points.

In a field including Russian world champion Gleb Galperin, he consolidated his advantage with his next effort, a back 3 1/2 somersaults which drew four more 10s from the seven judges and 97.35 points.

Daley's huge lead became vulnerable with a lower mark for his concluding reverse 3 1/2 somersaults, leaving 22-year-old Klein with a realistic target for gold.

The German, diving last, scored higher than the little Briton with his final dive but it was not quite enough.

Daley amassed 491.95 points from his six final dives. Klein took the silver with 487.60 and Francesco dell'Uomo of Italy bronze (481.30).

The championships were first contested in 1926 and available records do not show a younger men's European diving champion than Daley.

In the pool, Great Britain's women's 4x100metres medley relay squad set a new European record as they successfully defended their title.

Fran Halsall, four-time European junior champion, overhauled the Russian quartet whose lead had been gradually ground down on the final turn and went away from her rival to touch in a new European best of three minutes 59.33 seconds.

Russia were the clear leaders after the opening backstroke leg, with 17-year-old world finalist Lizzie Simmonds swimming for the British squad.

Kate Haywood produced a blistering breaststroke leg against triple Eindhoven medallist Yuliya Efimova and handed over to British record holder Jemma Lowe in the butterfly.

The Stockton swimmer further cut the Russians' lead and handed over to Halsall with the City of Liverpool athlete producing a blistering final leg to touch ahead of Russia and the Netherlands.

It was the third medal of the meet for Great Britain after David Davies, in the 1500m freestyle, and the women's 4x200m freestyle squad both claimed silvers.

Marleen Veldhuis and Federica Pellegrini kept up the relentless world record rush to lift the overall count to six at the end of the final day.

Veldhuis sped through the 50 metres freestyle in 24.09 seconds to win her third gold medal of the Championships and beat the mark of 24.13 set by her Dutch compatriot Inge de Bruijn at the Sydney Olympics on Sept. 22, 2000.

She won the 50 by half a second from Dutch team mate Hinkelien Schreuder, who clocked 24.59. Sweden's Therese Alshammar, silver medallist behind De Bruijn at the 2000 Olympics, took bronze in 24.71. De Bruijn witnessed the passing of her world record 7-½ years on and assisted at Veldhuis's medal ceremony.

Veldhuis anchored the Netherlands to a world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay last Tuesday and won the 100 freestyle on Thursday.

"I'm now the fastest woman in the water -- long and short course," Veldhuis said. "It is fantastic to compete in front of a home crowd."

Italy's Pellegrini, who had been disqualified for a false start in the 200 freestyle heats on Saturday, bounced back by taking the women's 400 metres freestyle world record from Olympic and world champion Laure Manaudou of France.

Pellegrini clocked four minutes 1.53 seconds to better the mark of 4:02.13 mark set by Manaudou at the last European championships in Budapest on August 6, 2006.

Pellegrini, twice a world 200 freestyle medallist, raced away in the 400 freestyle in the absence of Manaudou, who had left Eindhoven early to catch up on her Olympic training after winning gold in the 200 backstroke and 4x200 freestyle relay and silver in the 100 backstroke.

"Of course I was a bit upset because of my disqualification in the 200 freestyle. Today I desperately wanted to win gold but didn't at all reckon with such a time," Pellegrini said.

Alain Bernard, who had broken three world records in three days, was happy just to win the men's 50 freestyle in 21.66, 0.16 of a second outside the world mark he set in Sunday's semi-finals.

"Today my aim was to win the title. After these three crazy days it was difficult to remain mentally sane. It's my second-best time plus my second gold," the Frenchman, who also broke the 100 metres world mark twice in Eindhoven, said.

Olympic silver medallist Duje Draganja of Croatia took silver in the 50 in 22.00 and Sweden's Stefan Nystrand, second to Bernard in the 100 freestyle, bronze in 22.16.

There was also a European record for Hungary's Laszlo Cseh in the 400 individual medley as the Olympic bronze medallist won the gold for the third time in a row, clocking 4:09.59 to shave 0.04 seconds from his own European mark and complete an Eindhoven 200 and 400 individual medley double.

"I was not really prepared for these championships and I'm a bit surprised about my performance. Whether it will be sufficient to beat (American Olympic and world champion) Michael Phelps, we will see in Beijing," he said.

Russia finished top of the medals table with 12 golds and brought the championships to a rousing close, winning the men's 4x100 medley relay from Croatia and Sweden in a European record 3:34.25.

Sporting Life / Reuters