Balfour has had a hugely successful year in 2006
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Kirsty Balfour broke her national 200m breaststroke record as she claimed Britain's first gold medal of the European short-course championships.
The 22-year-old Scot led from start to finish for an emphatic, two-metre victory in Helsinki.
She surpassed her own British record to touch in two minutes, 21.82 seconds, ahead of Germany's Anne Poleska and Beata Kaminska of Poland.
It rounds off a breakthrough year for the Edinburgh swimmer.
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I wasn't sure of my pace out there and just tried to build into the race, to get faster and faster
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"I was relieved as I touched the wall, because I wasn't quite sure how close the other girls were," she said afterwards.
"It was a relief. But I was very surprised with the time and the result, because I'm in training and not 'race' prepared.
"I wasn't sure of my pace out there and just tried to build into the race, to get faster and faster."
Balfour became European long course champion in August and won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke in Budapest.
She also claimed silver and bronze behind double world record holder Leisel Jones at the Commonwealth Games in March.
Meanwhile, fellow Briton Liam Tancock just missed out on the medals in the 50m backstroke, finishing fourth behind Germany's Helge Meeuw and Thomas Rupprath and third-placed Lubos Krizko of Slovakia.
Chris Cook also finished just outside the medals in the 100m breaststroke - in which Oleg Lisogor, of Ukraine, took gold.
Rebecca Adlington was another to finish fourth, fading late on in an 800m freestyle won by France's Laure Manaudou.
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