Athletes from Spain have largely dominated the World Aquatics World Cup podium places during a stunning opening campaign under their new head coach and legendary, multiple Olympic medal-winner, Andrea Fuentes.

That form continued in Funchal, with the nation attaining medals in each of the 11 events, with five of them gold. However, they weren’t the only stunning success story.

Here World Aquatics takes a look at some of the standout performances from the European Championships and assesses what it might mean for Singapore 2025.

Team Finals – Spain Supreme, while Italy Impress

Success at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris underlined Spain’s status as a growing power in the sport, but their stunning subsequent progress has surprised even those within the movement.

Renewed energy, passion and near-unrivalled creativity have seemingly pushed all athletes within the programme to new levels, and that was clearly on show in the first team event of the 2025 Europeans, the Free discipline.

Spain had already secured victories in their previous two World Cup outings with their ‘Insanity’ themed routine and their line-up, which featured Dennis Gonzalez Boneu, delivered a peerless performance, securing the win by a colossal 42 points.

Italy gave notice of their recent improvements too, with a strong second-place finish, with a youthful Israeli squad taking third.

In keeping with the theme of Spanish success, the nation would again top the standings after the conclusion of the Team Technical contest, ensuring a third successive European Championships win for the country in the discipline.

They attained global attention during the explosive debut of their new ‘Backstreet’s Back’ routine – performed to the iconic Backstreet Boys’ track – at the opening World Cup of the season, before completing a hattrick of titles.

The crowd in Funchal were equally entertained and enthusiastic as Spain soared to another win, this time ahead of Ukraine, who are making encouraging progress after the heartbreak of missing the 2024 Olympics, and France, who were fourth at their home Games.

“We have been working hard on our artistic impression,” Paula Ramirez said after the contest. “We’ve also had help from someone who has worked with Cirque du Soleil and other shows to improve our interpretation and performance. 

“All this work on the artistic side allows us to have fun and enjoy our routines more.”

There would be no triple crown for the Spanish athletes though, with a sensational acrobatic event providing high-skill, high-drama and a fitting conclusion to the team competitions.

Italy was arguably one of the highest profile leading nations to struggle after the introduction of revolutionary new rules within the sport in 2023, but they now look not only back to their best, but are in record-breaking form.

An exceptional execution of their ‘Chicago’ themed routine saw them claim a first-ever European title in a team contest, having finished with four silver medals at their home Championships in 2022.

That event, in Rome, saw Ukraine claim gold in each of the four team disciplines and their new-look line-up would take silver at the latest edition in Funchal.

Spain would maintain their run of medals in each event though in 2025, finishing third and just a fraction of a mark behind Ukraine.

Their new routine, to Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’, was penalised by the judges for a failed acrobatic movement, but still showed plenty of potential ahead of the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, in July.

Women’s Duet – Austria’s Alexandri Sisters Reclaim Crown as Italy Make History

Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina Alexandri were highly tipped for historic medal-success at Paris 2024, having won their maiden World Championships title just 12 months earlier, but they would finish an “agonising” fourth.

The pair were so disappointed that they considered their future in the sport, but after an extended break – and much to the relief of fans of the sport – the sisters have returned.

In the first contest of the 2025 Europeans – the Duet Technical – they signalled their intent to return to the summit of the sport, following up an impressive comeback at the Markham World Cup, with a high-scoring victory, for their Swan Lake-themed performance.

“It was new for us and we were a bit stressed about it, but we did very well,” said Anna-Maria Alexandri. “This is also the first time we pass the 300-points, so this is a very big deal.”

Spain’s exciting new teenage duet Txell Ferre Gaset and Lilou Lluis Valette took silver in their continental debut, while French duo Anastasia Bayandina and Romane Lunel were third.

Perhaps buoyed by their impressive team performances the new Italian duet – of Lucrezia Ruggiero and Enrica Piccoli – also delivered a statement swim, with their ‘Hypnosis’ themed routine landing their nation a first-ever European duet crown.

Spain’s Iris Tio Casas and Lilou Lluis Valette will also be two leading names to watch at Singapore 2025 and despite a basemark error their score was enough for silver.

Italy was not the only nation to make history in the Duet Free event though, with Germany team-mates Klara Bleyer and Amelie Blumenthal Haz combining to land their country a first European medal in a duet discipline since the 1983 Europeans.

Mixed Duet – Great Gonzalez Doubles Up With Different Partners 

Dennis Gonzalez Boneu, who this season has become the first man to swim as part of Spain’s team free line-up, has established himself as arguably the greatest male artistic swimmer of his generation over recent years and at the age of 21 he plans to achieve even more.

For the second European Championships in a row, he secured a golden double in the Mixed Duet contests, again with different partners, but his latest success in the Technical discipline kept up a record of three continental titles in a row alongside Mireia Hernandez Luna.

Their ‘Hip hop, Let’s go’ routine was impressive, but their execution was only just enough to secure their latest victory ahead of Great Britain.

Olympic silver medal winning women’s duet star Izzy Thorpe was making her return to the sport for the first time since Paris 2024 and with her usual partner, Kate Shortman, taking a year sabbatical, she paired with Ranjuo Tomblin for the first time.

They finished less than two points behind the established Spaniards and that result will give them confidence a podium push could be a real possibility come the Worlds in Singapore.

“I’ve been really enjoying this experience, it’s so different for me, said Thorpe.

“My whole career, I’ve been swimming duet with Kate. Actually, this is my first competition without her at all, so it’s a bit strange, but I’ve really been having a lot of fun swimming in mixed duet.”

Another new pairing, of Lucrezia Ruggiero and Filippo Pelati, also impressed, taking bronze.

The concluding Mixed Duet event, the Free discipline, would see the same nations attain the top-three positions, but in a different order, with some revisions to the line-ups.

Gonzalez, this time with the highly impressive Iris Tio Casas, edged gold with their ‘Baby I’m gonna leave you’ routine, ahead of Pelati and Ruggiero.

Tomblin would secure the final podium position, this time with rising star and fellow European junior medallist, Holly Hughes.

Solo Men – Tomblin Triumphs And Incredible Iglesias Secures Euro Success

As previously mentioned, Gonzalez may be Spain’s leading male athlete, but he is far from their only star name and Jordi Caceres Iglesias built on his impressive performances across the 2025 World Cup series in the Solo Free final.

The 21-year-old delivered said he was “proud” of his “dream” result after securing his first European title, in his first continental championships.

18-year-old Pelati built on his Mixed Duet successes with silver, while defending champion Tomblin took bronze.

The record-breaking British artistic swimmer delivered a much-improved performance in the Technical final, though, with the exceptional execution of his routine helping him finish clear of Italian rival Pelati.

Gonzalez Boneu had a rare ‘off’ day, performance-wise, but his display to Billie Eilish’s track, ‘Lovely’, was still enough to ensure he finished with a medal, the bronze.

Solo Women – Bleyer’s Brilliance and Alexandri Awesome Once More

Klara Bleyer enjoyed a breakthrough 2024 which saw her attain the first senior European as well as World Cup honours of her career and the now 21-year-old continues to improve from event to event.

She won the solo free discipline at the 2025 season-opening World Cup in Paris and three months on performed an even more masterful delivery of her ‘Space’ themed display to claim her nation’s first-ever European gold medal an individual artistic swimming event.

“This medal feels very special for me because two years ago exactly in this location I became European junior champion,” she said. “Now it feels like a full-circle moment.”

Italian Olympian Enrica Piccoli captured silver, her first major senior solo medal, with Tio Casas landing bronze, but showing the kind of potential which suggests with further time to refine her routines, she could well be a World medal contender in July.

Vasiliki Alexandri will have something to say about that though. The Austrian opted only to attempt a defence of one European solo title, after winning each at Belgrade 2024.

She had to wait until the final day of competition for her opportunity to showcase her latest routine revisions and followed her triplet sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina by retaining a title following a phenomenal performance.

“I’m very happy I could repeat my success from last year,” she said after the final. 

“But honestly, I am just happy to be here at all, it has been a difficult season. We started a little bit late, with my sisters we only trained with our new coach [Takako Nakajima] for the past three months, so it is very meaningful to achieve this result.”

Olympic bronze medallist Tio Casas secured her sixth honour from six events, with silver in her final solo outing, with Bleyer rounding off the best European Championships of her career to date with bronze.

The best European athletes will unite with their rivals from other continents at the World Aquatics Championships - Singapore 2025, with the artistic swimming contests set to take place from 18-25 July.