The sisters, who won the same event in the same venue 12 months ago in what was their last appearance on the World Cup circuit, have not competed since finishing what they described at the time as a “devastating” fourth at the 2024 Olympic Games.

However, the pair delivered an outstanding performance to finish ahead of strong pairs from Spain and China, who completed the podium places.

The other titles, on day two in Markham, were secured by Spain (Team Free), Xu Huiyan of China (Women’s Solo Free) and countryman Guo Muye (Men’s Solo Free).

Women’s Duet Technical – Success For Awesome Austrian Siblings

Such was the level of disappointment the Alexandri sisters experienced after their Olympic heartbreak that there was speculation the Austrian duet may leave the sport, but after time to consider their options, they have returned to the water.

Additionally, the duet have fresh impetus for the new ‘Olympic cycle’ with their long-term coach Albena Mladenov retiring and Japan’s former national team head coach Nakajima Takako taking over.

The fans in Markham, who are renowned for their passionate support of artistic swimming, made their thoughts on the pair’s return well-known as they entered the arena and the sisters delivered a performance

Their routine, to the theme of Swan Lake, attained a combined score – for artistic impression and execution, together with a difficulty value of 35.0000, achieved an impressive overall total of 290.3009 to successfully defend the title they won 12 months ago.

“She is very calm,” said Eirini of their new coach. “Sometimes we get stressed during training or competition, but even with mistakes it’s about ‘tomorrow is a different day, we focus on the positives’ and she is very open minded. 

“It was very difficult after our coach retired because we had to train alone and we have only been working on this (routine) for two months.”

Txell Ferre and Lilou Lluis, who won the discipline in the season opening event with a score of 281.7383, may not have been able to repeat that result, but they did improve their total, with 187.8042 their reward for further enhancing their ‘Ex’s and Oh’s’ routine.

“This music is happy, lively and we like it, so we choose it for our technical duet,” Ferre told World Aquatics.

“Our goal was to do the best we can, and I think we did that, so happy for this medal, but we are looking to improve a little bit on artistic impression.”

Completing the top-three in the high-class, 18-strong final, were Chinese sisters Lin Yanhan and Lin Yanjun, in what was their first event since claiming bronze at the Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final in Budapest last July.

They attained a score of 279.5150 and were pleased with their performance as they gear towards the home World Cup Super Final in Xi’an, China, in June.

“We have been working on this routine for about a half year, so this is (nearly) a brand-new routine,” said Lin Tanhan.

“We saw a difference between the top two [Austria and Spain] and our level, so we learned a lot and will keep improving to take the next step.”

Her twin sister Lin Yanjun added; “We want to improve a couple of things, like technique and body control, while we also definitely want to have better connection to each other.”

Team Free – Spain Execute Phenomenal Free Show

Team Technical winners Spain, along with fellow podium finishers the USA and Japan, were again expected to be in the mix for medals—and so it transpired.

On Saturday night in Markham, the spectators were treated to a spectacular show. Two of the Paris 2024 medal-winning teams took to the water less than 12 months after their Olympic success.

Spain debuted their ‘insanity’ routine in Somabay and made further improvements to deliver an event winning overall score of 312.9363.

“The beauty of this routine is that it defends people who don’t care about other people’s opinion and it’s called crazy because at the end you will be called a genius and you can only do that when you fight against social boundaries,” Andrea Fuentes told World Aquatics.

“I’m very proud of how they performed and I think they swam amazingly.”

Taking second, with the highest degree difficulty routine, which attained a DD mark of 62.4380 was Japan, who scored 17.9447 points fewer than winners Spain, but were nearly four points ahead of third-placed USA.

“We took the silver today, but we will practice harder and hard to get a better colour of medal Tomoka Sato told World Aquatics. 

USA head coach Tammy McGregor said she was “proud” of her team’s performance in what was the debut of their ‘body’ themed routine.

“Doing a new programme is a lot of blood, sweat and tears and usually it takes six months, but we did this in two, so I’m really proud,” she said.

“Timing and execution can be improved ahead of Singapore (World Championships), but for a debut they did a great job.”

Women’s Solo Free – Xu tops surprise podium line-up with Georgia and Aruba

Xu Huiyan entered her second contest of the Markham World Cup as the favourite to claim another title, but only once in her career has the young Chinese star been able to attain two solo successes in the same event.

Xu’s last came just over 12 months ago in her homeland, but with regular Spanish medallist Iris Tio Casas missing out on a top-three result and Paris Olympian Audrey Lamothe placing just behind her, the swimmer ultimately eased to victory by a margin of 18.026 points.                         

“I don’t feel I have swum any best performances for myself yet, but the best gold medal is the tech solo (on Friday),” Xu told World Aquatics.

“My goal (going forwards) is to get all the difficult degree and no base-marks as I was sick before arriving and that made things difficult at the beginning of the event.”

While the winner may have been relatively predictable, the silver and bronze medallists were anything but.

Mari Alavidze of Georgia has shown undoubted potential this season, with the 18-year-old finishing fourth twice – in Paris and Somabay – but in Markham she finally secured the first international podium of her career.

“Yes of course I’m so excited and I cannot think of the words,” she admitted. “It’s my first senior international medal for Georgia which is amazing and now I will think about China (Super Final) as well as Singapore (World Championships) were I want strong performances.”

Completing the top-three was Kyra Hoevertsz (ARU), with the 27-year-old attaining what was just the fifth medal at this level of competition in her career and she was quick to pay tribute to her temporary coach Esther Jaumà, who will soon return to guiding the Netherlands.

“I thought I did a big mistake in the first hybrid and I got a little bit lost in the water, so I had to do a big reaction to that and my scores improved over 12 points, making today more satisfying,” said Hoevertsz, who also won bronze at the Paris World Cup.

“It’s hard training in Aruba because it’s in the Caribbean and not many take the sport seriously, but in the last year I’ve been training a lot between home and the Netherlands.

“This is my last competition with Esther because she will go back to working with the Netherlands as their head coach for the World Championships, but I will be with Tania Rudkovska, who’s from Switzerland for Singapore 2025.”

Men’s Solo Free – Guo grabs second successive Free gold

Britain’s Ranjuo Tomblin was the male solo star on the opening day of competition in Markham, winning the Technical event. Still, he entered the Free contest as something of an unknown quantity as he returned to the discipline for the first time since winning European gold at Belgrade 2024.

The teenager was debuting a new routine inspired by modern and contemporary dance. While he was strong enough to claim a podium finish, two athletes would better his overall score of 187.5338.

“It’s my first time competing this routine, this year, and it’s important with the Free to gain the confidence for future events,” he told World Aquatics.

“There are a few males in Great Britain doing artistic swimming, but they’re quite young, so I’m looking to inspire as many boys as I can when I do this.”

Topping the standings, for the second-success event after victory in Somabay last month, was China’s rising star Guo Muye, who had placed a surprise seventh in the Tech final 24 hours earlier.

On Saturday he was much improved and also unrivalled with his ‘setting out’ themed display attaining a combined overall score of 192.7988.

“I’m more satisfied with this (over the victory in Egypt), because I also have very tough opponents from Mexico here, so I’m much happier with this one,” said the former pool racing swimmer.

Sandwiched between winner Guo and bronze medallist Tomblin was Diego Villalobos of Mexico, who claimed his third medal in Markham, following Men’s Solo Tech silver and Mixed Duet tech bronze on Friday.

“All my medals are different emotions and I enjoy all of them,” he told World Aquatics.

“The theme, it’s about the Joker; I try to tell the story of how he gradually went insane and today I’m satisfied with my performance.”