Yana Klochkova targeted her third gold medal of the European swimming championships with a confident start to the defence of her 400 metres freestyle crown on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Ukrainian, who retained her 200 and 400 individual medley titles earlier in the championships, qualified second for the evening's final behind Laure Manaudou of France, the newly crowned 100 metres backstroke champion.
Manaudou clocked four minutes 12.42 seconds, with Klochkova in the next lane just 0.15 seconds behind.
Spain's Erika Villaecija, the new 800 metres freestyle champion, qualified third, while 200 freestyle winner Camelia Potec also made the final comfortably.
Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, world silver medallist behind American world record breaker Michael Phelps last year, led the way in the men's 400 metres individual medley heats in 4:20.11.
However, fellow Hungarian Istvan Bathazi, the 2000 European champion and 2002 silver medallist, was disqualified for an incorrect breaststroke turn.
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Luca Marin was second-fastest overall, winning his heat in 4:20.93, and fellow Italian Alessio Boggiatto qualified fourth on aggregate after leading his heat in 4:21.42.
Austria's Markus Rogan, two golds and a silver already in his possession, also made the final, fifth overall in 4:23.67.
Eight finals were being contested in the concluding evening session, with most excitement expected in the men's 50 metres freestyle.
World champion Alexander Popov only just made the final as eighth and slowest qualifier from Saturday's semi-finals, with Ukraine's Oleksandr Volynets fastest in both heats and semi-finals.
Mark Foster was chasing a fast time inside Britain's Olympic selection qualifying standard to give weight to his appeal against exclusion from the team for August's Athens Games, having fallen just short at the trials.
