Olympic bronze medallists Spain marked their return to World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup action with a stunning Team Technical display, securing gold in home waters on the opening day of competition in Pontevedra.
The hosts, who claimed nine medals – more than any other nation – at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, were making their seasonal debut on the World Cup circuit with the team having prioritised long-term training over short-term triumphs.
Their line-up, which consisted of three Paris 2024 bronze medallists, attained an impressive overall score of 292.8417 points for their innovative ‘Hope’ themed routine.
“I am so proud of my team because we are changing the rules of artistic swimming,” Sara Saldana Lopez told World Aquatics. “I think all the teams are jealous about our team! I think we will inspire other countries to follow our path.”
Joana Jimenez Garcia, who was part of the impressive Mexico team which took silver following a score of 277.1583pts, said their result was “like a gold.”
“We swam to the Bollywood and we wanted to share the energy, the passion and the joy of that. As a team we are very happy and very grateful as it is like a copy of ourselves and our personalities.”
France, with a score of 267.6242pts, took third, with Paris 2024 Olympian Romane Lunel admitting the medal was a “good ending” after “problems” pre-competition.
“It was really good swim today and we are happy because Anastasia [Bayandina] (only) learned the technical team one week ago.”
Earlier in the day an eye-catching 25-strong field lined-up for the first contest of the World Cup in Pontevedra, the Women’s Solo Free.
History-making reigning World champion Iris Tio Casas was the athlete the majority of the home fans were desperate to see and despite potentially facing a few nerves in front of an expectant audience the 23-year-old delivered a dazzling display.
Her emotive routine, to the theme which translates into English as, ‘Hyme to love’, wowed spectators and judges alike, with the latter awarding her a competition winning score of 268.7725pts.
“I am very happy and felt a lot of support from the public,” Tio Casas told World Aquatics. “They were really loud and it helped me feel strong and perform well despite feeling tired at the end of my routine.”
Taking what could be considered a surprise maiden World Cup medal, in second, was 19-year-old Italian Ginevra Marchetti, who has only featured sporadically on the circuit since her debut back in 2023.
“This is my first medal in a World Cup and I’m very proud about it, as it represents all the work that I’ve done,” Marchetti told World Aquatics. “I’m really happy, satisfied and proud of myself.”
Claiming bronze and just the second World Cup honour of her career after Solo Free silver in Markham, Canada, last season, was Mari Alavidze of Georgia.
The 19-year-old 2022 European bronze medallist scored 257.7213 to hold off the challenges posed by more senior and established rivals Audrey Lamothe (CAN) and Vaslina Khandoshka (NAA).
"It was really enjoyable to do solo as I think I was ready for this and when I finished I was confident I’d done everything I could possibly do"
The second contest of the day saw nine pairs, from eight nations, take to the water for the Mixed Duet Technical Final.
It was an assembled group which contained a host of previous World Cup medallists, but ultimately none of them could rival Great Britain’s Olympic silver medallist Izzy Thorpe and European champion Ranjuo Tomblin.
The pair won World and European honours in what was their debut season in 2025 and have continued to build momentum in now their second campaign.
Their third victory in four Mixed Duet World Cup contests in 2026 was secured following an outstanding display of power and precision – to their ‘Latin Dance’ themed routine – which gave them a winning combined total of 225.9034 points.
“I’m feeling very happy obviously,” Thorpe told World Aquatics.
"I think the swim went really well and we focused on the process today and how we could perform with different conditions without a typical warm up that we would usually do, so I think it was a really good result and a really good swim"
Team-mate Tomblin believe they can still increase their level of performance in their upcoming contests, adding; “I think we’re always looking to improve on the artistic impression and trying to make our execution a bit better.
“We’ll watch the video and look at the scores and then keep on going up from here.”
Claiming second, in what was their maiden World Cup appearance as a Mixed Duet, were 16-year-old Eneko Sanchez Aguilar and 19-year-old Carla Lorenzo Llusca, who attained 210.8792.
It was an impressive score for the debutants and another result which demonstrated the host nation’s strength-in-depth and ability to consistently develop new talent.
“We have trained for this duet for just two weeks ago,” Aguilar told World Aquatics.
"We didn’t expect this medal because we had not a long time to train for it, but we are so proud of this medal because of the hard work we did"
Rounding off the top-three were Kazakhstan duet Yasmina Islamova and Aldiyar Ramazanov, who maintained their run of consecutive World Cup podiums in 2026.
“I am so happy,” stated Islamova. “This is the fourth medal for Kazakhstan in the World Cup, the first in Colombia, the second in Paris, the third in China and this is our fourth.”
The final event of the opening day in Pontevedra was the Men’s Solo Technical Final which saw nine athletes battle it out for the three precious podium places.
With China’s Guo Muye continuing his preparations for the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming Super Final in Toronto next month, Britain’s Tomblin was highly fancied to maintain his 100% medal-winning record in the event this season.
However, a rare error-strewn performance saw the 20-year-old place a surprising fourth.
In his place and rising to the occasion at the summit of the men’s solo discipline was another young European starlet in the form of Filippo Pelati.
The 19-year-old, who is now in his third season on the World Cup circuit, secured his first individual victory since his debut campaign following a sublime display to Freddie Mercury’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’ track, which earned him an overall total of 229.7325pts.
“It means a lot because in Paris [World Cup in March] with the solo it didn’t go so well,” reflected the Italian, who placed 9th in the Solo Free Final in France earlier this year.
“This was a new chance for me and I felt very comfortable today in the water because I felt everybody singing with me, representing Freddie Mercury, so I was very happy with my swim.”
Eneko Sanchez Agular, who earlier claimed Mixed Duet Tech silver, followed up his first-ever World Cup medal with a second by matching his earlier placement, this time with a score of 228.4342pts.
“I felt super good in the water and I tried to express the music a lot with my movement and everything,” recalled Agular. “I think I did a good swim, and I am very proud of this medal.”
The Spaniard would be joined by Aldiyar Ramazanov for the second time in a matter of hours with the Kazakhstan swimmer following up third in the Mixed Duet with a further bronze medal finish.
“I am so happy,” Ramazanov told World Aquatics. “It is exciting to get two medals today and all my World Cups this year have been very good because [I] worked very hard.”
The second day of competition at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Pontevedra, Spain, will again see the assembled athletes bid for honours across four disciplines: Women’s Duet Free, Men’s Solo Free, Team Free and Women’s Solo Tech.