This came courtesy of Jack Laugher and Chris Mears in the 3m synchronised springboard event, with the duo taking the title on 456.81 points, serving notice of their Olympic ambitions by defeating the Olympic and world silver medallists Ilia Zakharov and Evgenii Kuznetsov in the process.

The Russians settled for silver on 445.23 while Ukraine’s Illya Kvasha picked up his third medal of the Championships, teaming up with Oleksandr Gorshkovozov for bronze on 439.86.

Prokopchuk, European champion in 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2015, was also up against a strong British team cheered on by a partisan home crowd.

Leading the way was Tonia Couch, who led the way in this morning's prelims with a score of 345.20.

But the Ukrainian, a 10m platform bronze medallist at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, invariably saves her best form for the biggest stage and duly produced a virtually flawless performance to win with 385.90 points.

Couch improved on her qualification haul to finish second with 352.70 points as British team-mate Georgia Ward claimed third, with 325.05.

After six silver medals, Ukraine had earlier finally broken Russian domination in synchronised swimming - albeit largely because there was no Russian finallist.

Performing, somewhat ironically, to Russian composer Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, they stood head and shoulders above the field on the night, scoring 94.0000 – an improvement of 0.2 from their prelim.

They will now be looking to challenge the likes of China and Japan - as well as Russia - for a place on the podium at Rio 2016.

taly, performing to IMichele Braga’s The Season on Earth, scored 91.2333 for silver while Spain's rendition of Toni Mir’s Tropical Soul proved enough for bronze with 89.6667 points.

Russia had earlier added a final two more golds to their tally at the European Swimming Federation (LEN)-organised event, however, winning the duet technical and mixed duet technical events.

Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina were first up, adding the European title – being contested as an individual medal event for the first time – to their World crown from 2015.

They scored 95.1900 for their routine to Gypsy Dance by David Garrett to take gold by more than three points.

Ukraine’s Anna Voloshyna and Lolita Ananasova took silver on 91.7249 for their routine to a medley of Ukranian folk music as Italy’s Linda Cerruti and Costanza Ferro scored 88.3564 for third with their routine to Vivaldi’s Summer violin concerto.

Aleksandr Maltsev and Mikhaela Kalancha followed on to become the first mixed duet technical champions in the history of the European Championships, having landed theinaugural mixed duet free title two days ago.

Their military-themed routine to Tariverdiev’s Seventeen Moments of Spring' scored 89.0902 – a tally that would have won gold at last year’s World Championships.

Italy’s Giorgio Minisini teamed up with Manila Flamini to take silver on 86.1772, while Spain’s Pau Ribes and Berta Ferreras managed 82.0645 for bronze.