European champion Klara Bleyer gave further evidence of her potential to win a major global title in the near future with a third victory of 2026, in what is now, statistically, the best World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup season of her career.
The 21-year-old has now attained seven podium finishes in the series during the current campaign, with her latest success, in the Women’s Solo Free, part of a highly entertaining conclusion to the third leg in Xi’an, China.
Bleyer’s latest success, while performing to Richard Strauss’ ‘Space Odessey’ track, was secured by an extremely narrow margin, with just 0.1949 points separating her from Belarusian rival Vasilina Khandoshka.
“I feel very lucky because it was a very close result and Vasilina is a good competitor, who keeps me pushing for more,” the German told World Aquatics after achieving a winning total of 282.8000.
“For me, it's (also) a very strange feeling, because Germany is normally not at this level for artistic swimming so I'm really trying to stay there, but I'm also trying to enjoy everything because you never know how long it's going to last.”
Second-place-finisher Khandoshka, who won the Women’s Solo Free contest in Xi’an last season, said she was “very happy” with her performance and “support from the audience.”
“My coach and I were very happy and emotional when we saw the scores as we achieved the full score for our declared difficulty,” said 2025 World Championships silver medallist. “I performed well – that to us is more important than the placement on the podium and I’m ready to show even more!”
Completing the top-three was 17-year-old Ekaterina Shtatnova, whose impressive score of 279.5714pts, helped secure her the first World Cup medal of her young career.
“I'm very happy, as I liked my routine today, very much,” Shtatnova told World Aquatics.
“Being in water makes me feel much more flexible and comfortable than being on land, I’m like a fish that lives in the water and I tried to show this in my routine.”
The final contest of the day and the competition in China, saw seven teams, from five nations, take to the waters for the highly-anticipated Team Acrobatic Final.
As expected, the athletes showcased some of most dramatic, entertaining and skilful elements found in the sport and China’s strength-in-depth was clearly evident as the host nation claimed two of the three podium places.
However, despite possessing an Olympic gold medallist, as well as several World champions, China’s ‘A’ team would not top the podium, that position instead occupied by Russia following a dazzling display.
Their ‘Chaos Dolls’ themed routine, which they were performing for the first time internationally, was awarded a degree of difficulty (DD) score of 24.0250, together with an unsurpassable overall points total of 227.9089.
“This gold medal means a lot for us, because it's a new programme and we’ve only practised it for two months, so we are glad the judges like it and that we came first,”
three-time World champion Mayya Doroshko told World Aquatics.
“I'm very happy to be here, our whole team is glad to be here and we want to say thank you to the organiser and to all the people who are supporting us.”
A score of 212.9576pts would see ‘China A’ take silver, with their compatriots in ‘China B’ taking bronze after achieving 190.2319pts.
“We didn’t do as well as we hoped today; we made some mistakes and we are sorry to disappoint the home crowd who came to support us,” said ‘China A’ captain and 11-time World champion Chang Hao.
“Our team faced several challenges coming into this competition, including injuries, but despite all these, we held high hopes for ourselves coming into the competition and were determined to make our country proud.”
The Mixed Duet Free contest saw a host of high-class performances wow the on-looking crowd on the final day of the Artistic Swimming World Cup in Xi’an.
Britain’s Izzy Thorpe and Ranjuo Tomblin, who topped the podium in Saturday’s Technical contest, impressed again, but would ultimately have to settle for silver, something Thorpe insisted she was still “very proud” to have achieved.
Their total 222.5926pts was not quite enough for a further victory with that honour going the way of Chinese teenagers Cao Yixin and Shi Haoyue, who secured the first World Cup wins of their respective careers.
Their total of 224.8041 points, bettered the British pairs score by 2.2115pts, with judges clearly impressed by their entertaining ‘party’ themed routine, to Jason Derulo’s ‘Kiss the sky’ track.
“After yesterday’s performance (where they placed sixth), we felt a lot of pressure to do better,” Shi told World Aquatics.
“We kept it to ourselves and I’m very happy with the outcome today as we performed to our true potential and achieved the full score for our declared difficulty.”
Rounding off the top three were Russian pair Vladimir Pershin and Arina Tumkina, who were awarded a score of 196.2750pts, with the bronze medal representing a maiden senior international honour for the duet.
“It is a very big experience for them, because they are very young” said Russia head coach Svetlana Romashina.
Pershin added; “I was not nervous, I was calm, but I had no time to recover. This is my first competition though and I tried my best, so I’m very happy with this medal.”
The fourth stop of the 2026 World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup will take place in Pontevedra, Spain, from 29-31 May.
It represents the final opportunity for athletes to secure places at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final, which takes place in Toronto, Canada, from 19-21 June.