The duo only narrowly secured their place at the Olympic Games after reallocating places following the conclusion of the World Championship in February.

The Ukrainians, who won Olympic Team bronze at Tokyo 2020, had left Doha thinking their prospects of a place at Paris 2024 were over.

They will now head to their second Games with an important victory secured. However, it came after appealing their initial score.

At the end of the competition the Aleksiiva sisters were ranked in fourth, with China, Israel and Mexico occupying the podium positions.

Their appeal was upheld by the jury, though, and their total of 225.8600 was rescored as 260.2700, which saw their rise above their rivals.

Chinese twins Lin Yanhan and Lin Yanjun demonstrated the same routine as their Olympic duet – and fellow twins – Wang Quianyi and Wang Liuyi are due to perform in Paris next month.

The concept being that it will enable the nation to assess how judges view the routine and allow coaches to decide whether the Olympic duet should make tweaks before heading to the Games themselves.

They scored an impressive 252.1533, which will give the nation great encouragement about their Olympic medal prospects.

Israeli pair, Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee, who won two bronze medals at last month’s European Championships, attained a further podium finish.

Their score of 247.5669 just edging them ahead of fourth-placed Mexico on 247.0583.

Mixed Duet Technical – Spain Continues To Reign Supreme

Fans watching on in the Duna Arena were treated to a high class opening to the first day of competition in Budapest as eight pairs combined to produce a thrilling Mixed Duet Tech final.

Italian duo Filippo Pelati and Sarah Maria Rizea, fresh from successes at both the European senior and junior Championships over the last month, were the first to show their Super Final medal-winning potential.

An entertaining performance, swum to the theme of ‘The Renaissance’ attained a combined score of 211.8600 and gave them an early lead.

As so often though, the Spanish duo of Dennis Gonzalez and Mireia Hernandez demonstrated something rather special when they took to the pool.

The defending Super Final champions delivered a suitably strong performance to the 2012 track ‘Body Percussion Show’ by Alvaro Rodriguez.

Commentator Andrea Holland described their routine, which scored 227.9000, as a “fabulous interpretation” of the musical theme – body percussions.

Only the Kazakhstan duet, Nargiza Bolatova and Eduard Kim – the reigning World champions from Doha 2024 – could deny the Spanish victory.

Last season’s Super Final bronze medallists delivered the ‘Corpse bride’ routine with their usual passion and energy, which secured them a score of 222.5550.

That confirmed the standings for the event would see Spain take gold, ahead of Kazakhstan and Italy.

“We worked so hard for this result, we are extremely proud of our work and the result,” Gonzalez told World Aquatics.

Hernandez added; “We are so happy that we won the gold medal, because during the season we always made small mistakes, but now everything was good. 

“We enjoyed this routine a lot, that was very important, that feeling was the key.”

Gonzalez Doubles Up In the Men's Solo Tech

Just a few hours later European champion Dennis Gonzalez returned to the pool for his second swim – and second success – on the opening day of the Super Final.

It was a six-strong event, which featured five men, including Gonzalez, who had earlier contested the Mixed Duet Technical final.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the ‘freshest’ athlete – USA’s Kenneth Gaudet – delivered an energetic and powerful display which impressed the judges and attained a score of 207.0300.

That saw him move ahead of early leader Filippo Pelati of Italy, who achieved 203.1466 for his ‘dreaming amongst nature’ themed performance.

Gonzalez, a world champion in 2023, was the penultimate performer to take to the water and continued his recent impressive form after injury struggles saw him miss multiple events over the last 12 months.

The 20-year-old achieved 214.1050 after his routine which was delivered to the 1986 Prince track ‘Kiss’.

"I tried to improve a lot and do better than in my previous competitions and I lost the choreography a little bit during the routine, but I told myself I must do it, keep going,” Gonzalez told World Aquatics 

“I've just had my forearm surgery, so it was definitely more comfortable to perform that way; I'm so happy with this gold medal! “

Solo Tech Success For China

Ten women battled it out in the Solo Tech final which saw China’s Xu Huiyan deliver what is rapidly becoming the norm – a dominant display.

The 18-year-old, competing in her first year on the senior circuit, scored 244.9300, for her performance to ‘Night Tour of Chang'an City.’

The Super Final gold added to her three previous solo successes earlier in the World Cup campaign.

Joining her on the podium was rising German star Klara Bleyer of Germany (154.6517), who claimed three medals at the 2024 Europeans last month.

Dutch artistic swimmer Marloes Steenbeek (147.1516) continued her medal-winning form in her debut season as a solo artistic swimmer with third in the Super Final.

“I was a little nervous today before my event, even though I had done a lot of training before this competition, but when I was done with my performance, and I saw the points, I felt I did a good job today,” Xu told World Aquatics.

Team Technical 

Those lucky enough to secure a ticket to the evening finals witnessed a sneak preview of what fans can expect come Paris 2024, with Olympic-bound line-ups from USA, Mexico, Canada and Australia battling it out for medals in a final featuring seven nations.

The USA had challenges settling on a team line-up for much of the World Cup campaign, but their chosen eight vindicated selection panel decisions, claiming their first gold of the season. 

The team, performing to Michael Jackson’s iconic ‘smooth criminal’ track, scored a combined total of 285.1667.

It saw them finish 3.6167 points ahead of continental rivals Mexico – performing to Queen’s ‘Don’t stop me now’ song, originally released in 1979.

Markham World Cup silver medallists Canada (247.6337) completed the podium places.

“I think we are all pretty happy with the result,” USA’s Anita Alvarez told World Aquatics. “Every competition we try to improve a little bit to reach the Olympics and this is another stepping stone.

“This routine will be our Olympic routine, but we will make some adjustments in the next few weeks.”