Canada denied hosts Spain a 100% winning record in the Team events on their return to World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup action following an outstanding performance on the last day of competition in Pontevedra.
Following victories in the Team Technical and Team Free events across Friday and Saturday respectively, Olympic bronze medallist Spain were the favourites to add another title to their collection.
However, performing to their ‘Spider-threads’ themed routine, the Canadian line-up secured victory with a winning overall total of 217.2892 points.
“We’re so proud of ourselves, we came out as a team, so connected, it’s an honour to compete together and it’s just amazing,” Kenzie Priddell told World Aquatics. “We worked so hard as a team.”
Spain’s performance to the theme ‘Berghain’ [Forest of Thoughts] was described as “mind blowing” by commentator Andrea Holland and would likely have been enough to claim gold were it not for an error on their last acrobatic move.
The team still celebrated a podium finish in front of their excitable home supporters, who also acknowledged the achievement of finishing top of the medal standings – with nine honours achieved over the three days of competition, five of which were gold.
Greece, who achieved a total of 203.9249 points, claimed third, securing their nation a first medal at the fourth stage of the World Cup, in what was the final event of the competition.
After a dazzling display in the Women’s Duet Free Final on Saturday World champions Iris Tio Casas and Lilou Lluis Valette were the favourites for a further title, but the Women’s Duet Technical is a discipline they only began working on together this season.
Meritxell Ferre was Lluis’ parter at Singapore 2025, and alongside the otherwise flawless Casas, the new pairing showed they still have some work to do, with a hybrid error ultimately seeing them miss out on a podium place in fourth.
One pair who would be celebrating landmark success though were the French duet of Romane Lunel and Laelys Alavez.
Ahead of the event they had won a combined 22 World Cup honours during their respective careers, but never claimed a victory. Following a further second-place finish on Saturday Lunel had stated she “hoped” their next performance would deliver gold.
They achieved just that, with their ‘heart’ themed routine attaining a winning overall score of 291.1000.
"This means a lot as we want more, but it’s been step-by-step and finally we have the gold so hopefully it will be gold next time as well"
In second and just 0.5184 points behind the French duet were USA’s Anita Alvarez and Jaime Czarkowski, who also celebrated a landmark result with their first World Cup podium finish together.
“With Jaime we’re working really well together and improving all of the time so we’re excited to keep growing in the sport,” Alvarez told World Aquatics.
Team-mate Czarkowski added: “We feed off each other’s energy and we really enjoy swimming the routines together and we’re using that to find ways to grow together.”
Completing the top-three were Mexico’s Marla Fernanda Arellano Germes and Joana Jimenez Garcia, who attained an overall score of 281.7926 points to match the result they achieved 24 hours earlier in the Women’s Duet Free Final.
Despite being just over a year into their team-up, Izzy Thorpe and Ranjuo Tomblin have established themselves as one of the most dominant duets in the World Cup field, and followed-up their Mixed Duet Technical title with gold in the Mixed Duet Free final.
The Britons have now claimed two golds, a silver and a bronze from their four outings in the event this season, making them strong contenders for further success at the World Cup Super Final in Toronto, Canada, next month.
In their latest showing they attained 259.5159pts – their highest score of the season – for the performance to their ‘conflict between light and darkness’ themed routine, to the track XVI Darkness, from the Maleficent 2 Trailer.
“We get on really well outside of the pool and I think that chemistry really helps us in the pool where we’re really focused and know what we need to do,” Tomblin told World Aquatics.
Thorpe added: “He brings great energy, we have a lot of fun in training and we try to take that in to competition, even though it’s a more serious setting.”
Claiming second were the new Italian pairing of two-time World champion Lucrezia Ruggiero and rising star Filippo Pelati, who backed up their maiden victory at the Paris World Cup in March, with a further podium finish after scoring 249.4276pts.
"We used to work with tango choreographers and professional tango dancers just to improve our movement and I think that might be key to our performance"
Rounding off the top-three were fan-favourites Gustavo Sanchez and Emily Minante of Colombia, who attained an overall score of 232.5392.
“We are working to improve our artistic impression and execution and we are really happy with the performance today,” Sanchez said, after receiving the bronze medal.
The highest-scoring solo, duet and team line-up from the World Cup series will now return to action next month at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming Super Final in Toronto, Canada, which runs from 19-21 June