PLYMOUTH Leander’s Ben Proud will go into Tuesday night’s final of the European men’s 50m butterfly event ranked second.

Proud easily won his heat in a time of 23.42 seconds, having earlier in the day clocked 23.54 in the heats.

However, Ukraine’s Andriy Govorov produced an absolutely sensational swim in the second semi-final, clocking a European Championship record and world leading time of 22.73, which was only three tenths of a second of the world record.

Proud’s Leander team-mates Zirk Kregor, swimming for Estonia, and Great Britain’s Tom Fannon clocked 24.61 and 25.55 respectively in the heats of the same event.

Proud also helped Great Britain’s 4x100m freestyle team to seventh place in their final.

Leander’s 16-year-old Laura Stephens set a new British age group record on her European senior debut in the women’s 50m butterfly. Stephens clocked 27.37 seconds.

There was also a national record for Leander’s Macedonia swimmer Ana-Maria Damjanovska in the same event. She clocked 29.53 seconds.

Meanwhile, Plymouth’s Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte will begin her bid for glory on Tuesday morning in the heats of the 100m breaststroke event.

Juliette Casini, swimming for Belgium, will open her individual European Championships on Tuesday morning as well when she competes in the women’s 100m freestyle.