Daniel Fogg secured gold on the opening day of the European Open Water Swimming Championships in Berlin.
The British Gas National Centre Loughborough swimmer won the men’s 5km time trial in a time of 53:41.4.
Fogg, who won gold in the 10km World Cup in Mexico in 2013, said: “I’ve never done a 5km time trial before. It was a bit weird not knowing where you are until the end, but I swam my own race and tried to time it so that I was faster at the end.
“I knew I had a good chance if I swam well and starting near the end probably helped, but as I had never done it before I didn’t know how it would go so am really pleased with the gold.
“After the disappointment of the 1500m at the Commonwealth Games, to come out here and end the season on a high is really positive and puts me in good stead for next season.”
The German pair of Rob Muffels and Thomas Lurz took silver and bronze in 54:01.8 and 54:02.6 respectively.
City of Glasgow’s Mark Deans was competing in his first senior international meet and finished 20th in a time of 57:28.5.
Earlier in the day Danielle Huskisson (University of Stirling) and Lauren Walton (Beckenham) finished 21st (2:03.01) and 26th (2:04.55) respectively in the women’s 10km.