Italy's Alberto Razzetti earned the first gold of the European Aquatics Championships at Rome’s Foro Italico as he won the men’s 400m individual medley ©Getty Images

Home swimmer Alberto Razzetti earned the first gold of the European Aquatics Championships at Rome’s Foro Italico as he won the men’s 400m individual medley.

The 23-year-old from Lavegna, who last year won European silver at this event in Budapest and also earned world gold at 200m butterfly and bronze in the 200m medley, finished almost two seconds clear as he clocked 4min 10.60sec.

Hungary’s David Verraszto earned silver in 4:12.58, with bronze going to another home swimmer, Pier Andrea Matteazzi, who clocked 4:13.29.

The second final of the night, the women’s 4x200m freestyle, saw the Dutch quartet of Imani De Jong, Silke Holkenborg, Janna Van Kooten and Marrit Steenbergen win in 7min 54.07sec.

The Dutch women, with Marrit Steenbergen on the final leg, won gold in the 4x200m freestyle on the first night of the European Aquatics Championships in Rome ©Getty Images
The Dutch women, with Marrit Steenbergen on the final leg, won gold in the 4x200m freestyle on the first night of the European Aquatics Championships in Rome ©Getty Images

Silver went to Britain’s team of Freya Colbert, Lucy Hope, Medi Harris and Freya Anderson in 7:54.73.

Hungary quartet of Nikoletta Padar, multiple world and Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu, Ajna Kesely and Lilla Abraham earned bronze in 7:55.73.

The final gold of the night went to Hungary, whose swimmers won the men’s 4x200m freestyle in 7:05.38 from Italy on 7:06.25 and France on 7:06.97.

Charlotte Bonnet of France was the fastest qualifier for tomorrow’s women’s 100m freestyle final, clocking 53.56sec, with Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands second fastest in 53.80.

Earlier the men’s 100m breaststroke - lacking England’s world, Olympic and Commonwealth gold medallist Adam Peaty, who returned to Commonwealth competition this month after breaking his foot - required a swim-off to reach tonight’s semi-finals.

Matej Zabojnik of the Czech Republic swam 1:00.63 to beat Israel’s Kristian Pitshuigin after both had clocked 1:01.34 in their preliminary heats.

With Peaty, who won the 50m and 100m titles at the last European Championships in Budapest last year, absent, the options have opened up for Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, who won a 100m breaststroke Olympic silver medal in Tokyo, and Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi, the bronze medallist.

Kamminga won the first of the evening session’s semi-finals, moving into tomorrow’s final with a time of 59.29sec from Valentin Bayer of Austria who clocked 59.59.

In the second semi-final, Martinenghi won in the fastest qualifying time of 58.44 from Andrius Sidlauskas, who clocked 59.45.