MO FARAH and Greg Rutherford starred as Great Britain ended a record-breaking European Championships with a flourish, topping the medal table after winning five golds on an incredible last day.

The British team will return home from Zurich with 23 medals following six wonderful days of athletics at the Stadion Letzigrund.

That haul surpasses the previous record of 19 from Barcelona four years ago, while the 12 golds blew away the previous best of nine set in Budapest in 1998.

There were eight British medals in all on the final day, five of which were podiumtopping displays as the team finished top of the medal list for just the third time in the championships’ history.

The men’s 4x400 metres relay team got the ball rolling in the Swiss sun, before London 2012 stars Farah and Rutherford triumphed either side of the men’s 4x100m team.

Asha Phillip, Ashleigh Nelson, Jodie Williams and Desiree Henry added a fifth gold of a wonderful Sunday for the British team, romping to victory in the women’s sprint relay in 42.24 seconds – breaking the national record in the process.

Jo Pavey, a month shy of her 41st birthday, got these medal-laden championships under way by rolling back the years to win 10,000m gold on the opening night, which Farah followed up the following day by winning the men’s event.

The 31-year-old Briton completed the European double in the final session in Zurich, putting a wretched 2014 behind him by impressively adding the 5,000m.

Rutherford – another star of ‘Super Saturday’ at London 2012 – has enjoyed a better time this year, breaking the British long jump record before winning the Commonwealth and European titles in quick succession – not that this success means any less.

“It’s fantastic,” he said after winning leap of 8.29m. “It’s great to go out there and put out a couple of half decent jumps and have another title.”

The individual success of Farah and Rutherford was capped by the marvellous performances of the British relay teams.

The men’s 4x400m team kicked things off as Conrad Williams, Matthew Hudson- Smith, Michael Bingham and Martyn Rooney broke the three-minute barrier on the way to gold.

The women’s quartet won bronze, as did Chris O’Hare in the 1500m and Andy Vernon in the 5,000m, before both of Great Britain’s 4x100m teams topped the podium.

First up were the men and, despite being without 100m champion James Dasaolu and fellow sub-10 sprinter Chijindu Ujah, were deserved victors.

Strong legs from James Ellington, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Stockton’s Richard Kilty gave Adam Gemili the opportunity to power home in a European-leading 37.93secs.

The women, by contrast, were not considered favourites, yet performed fantastically to not only take gold but the national record as well.

In the last event on the track, Philip, Nelson, Jodie Williams and Henry crossed the line in a European-leading time of 42.24s.