The European Aquatics Championships - Belgrade 2024 provided athletes with the opportunity to take on high-quality opponents as they edged closer to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The women’s duet events proved to be the most competitive, despite the pre-competition withdrawal of Austrian pair Anna-Maria and Erini-Mariana Alexandri through illness.
In their absence World medallists from the Netherlands and Great Britain, again underlined their Olympic medal credentials with impressive displays across the Technical and Free disciplines.
Dutch de Brouwer twins Bregje and Noortje secured a self-proclaimed “breakthrough” Tech silver at the 2023 European Games and added World free silver to their collection at Doha 2024.
In Serbia, the pair were simply sublime, claiming their nation’s first-ever duet European title in their opening event – Free routine – which was also the Netherland’s first gold in the sport for 47 years.
They then followed that up with an equally impressive performance in the Tech final, securing gold by 3.9383 points, ahead of Great Britain’s Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe.
“Becoming European champions is amazing and something we have dreamed about,” said Bregje de Brouwer.
Sister Noortje added: “We have something we’re working on which we want to show in Paris, which we think will be really special but it’s a secret for now and we can’t say anything more about it!”
Shortman and Thorpe, who claimed World silver and bronze medals earlier this year, stated there was a sense of “disappointment” at finishing behind the Dutch duet twice, but admitted that showed their level of development over the last 18 months.
“If you’d told us we’d come second twice at the Europeans early last year we’d have bitten your hand off, so the fact we’re a little disappointed proves our progress,” said Thorpe.
Shortman added; “Obviously we would have been even happier with gold, but we’re going our own way and we’ll be ready to fight (in Paris).”
Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee also impressed with two bronze medals and will seek success in Paris this summer.
“Whenever we go out there we want to show that we are a strong nation, with big goals, so this success is showing that we’re going in the right direction,” said Bobritsky.
With the majority of the Paris-bound teams choosing to continue their Olympic preparations at home, ahead of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming Super Final in Budapest (5-7 July), most nations sent their emerging talents to Belgrade 2024.
Spain’s strongest line-up was on-show in the Technical discipline though and the 2024 World silver medallists in the event, delivered an improved score on their performance in Doha.
Their score of 278.4684 (vs 275.8925 at Doha 2024) saw them finish clear of silver medallists Greece (257.8919) and Italy who were third (256.8584).
The young Greek team would claim a first-ever European title for their nation in the Team Free final, finishing ahead of Italy and Great Britain.
While it Germany, Greece and Italy claimed the one-two-three podium places in the Acrobatic discipline, with just 0.9066 points separating the leading two nations.
In the non-Olympic disciplines, Dennis González of Spain marked his return from injury by adding to his impressive honours list with two mixed duet titles alongside Emma García.
Italian Filippo Pelati joined him on the podium in each, claiming silver with Flaminia Vernice in the Duet Free and Sarah Maria Rizea in the Duet Tech.
British paid Beatrice Crass and Ranjuo Tomblin were third in each.
González would claim another title in the men’s Solo Free final, ahead of GB’s Tomlin and Italian legend Giorgio Minisini, who was third.
Minisini then took silver in the Tech final, in what could be the last major event of his career, with Tomblin landing a maiden gold and Quentin Rakotomalala of France finishing third.
While the Austrian duet were unable to perform, their triplet solo specialist Vasiliki Alexandri was able to travel to Belgrade and delivered two masterclass performances.
The 26-year-old, who won double bronze at the 2022 Europeans and two silver medals at the 2023 World Championships, claimed landmark solo Free and Tech titles in Serbia.
Alexandri, as well as the rest of the world’s best artistic swimmers, will next look to push for the podium at the Super Final in Budapest, Hungary, from 5-7 July.