2018 European Championships, Glasgow

The 2018 LEN European Swimming Championships took place at Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow as part of the ground-breaking multi-sport European Games. The venue had proved itself at the XX Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the mighty crowd welcomed athletes from across Europe to Scotland's largest city

"We knew the crowd would be right behind the Brits at the Europeans. I had been working to improve my middle distance performance in training since the Commonwealths in Australia and I knew there could be opportunities in the team events too if I could get back on form in time for Glasgow"

Stephen produced a season's best performance in the 400m freestyle heats on Day 1, finishing 12th ahead of teammate Jay Lelliot

    'The mixed 4x200m freestyle relay had never been swum before. I was given

    the chance at the final and took it. I've never turned down an opportunity to

    race'

Not included on the Olympic programme, mixed relay events were introduced by LEN in 2014. Leading out the GBR team in the final, Stephen produced another season's best swim. The team came home third to take the Bronze medal

2018 European Championships mixed 4x200 freestyle relay bronze medallists

"Although I had made some gains toward the end of the season I knew I wasn't quite back to my best form. There was so much depth in the men's 200 free in Britain by then, it was going to be really tough to make the cut for the relay final"

Once again leading the team out in the heats of the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, Stephen collected Gold that evening for his part in the event as his teammates came home first in the final. The British team finished second overall behind Russia in the medals table, collecting a total of 24 medals in the pool