World Championship gold medal winners Lin Yanjun and Xu Huiyan rounded off an impressive debut season together by adding the Women’s Duet Free title to their Duet Technical title on the final day of the 2026 World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final in Toronto, Canada.
China’s Lin Yanjun was partnered by twin sister Lin Yanhan at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, where they placed second and fourth in their two duet events.
However, Chinese selectors believed more was possible from a duet which succeeded Paris 2024 Olympic gold medal-winners Wang Qianyi and Wang Liuyi, who are taking a break from the sport to continue their education.
Lin Yanjun and Xu, who have won World Team titles, excelled in Saturday’s Duet Technical final and another strong performance, this time to their ‘shadow of the moon’ themed Free routine, achieved a score of 315.0224, which secured them a further gold.
“This was our debut doing this routine as partners in the Duet Free, so this performance was very encouraging and good for us moving forwards,” Yanjun told World Aquatics.
Xu added; “Naturally we were feeling a bit tired on day three of the competition, but technically this was very good and we’re very happy to win so many medals.”
Claiming silver, with a combined total of 299.7271pts, were Japan’s Moe Higa and Tomoka Sato, who have shown impressive growth as a pair this season.
“We’re relieved that we won the silver medal as we know there is lots of competition coming up,” Higa told World Aquatics. “We want to be closer to China at the Asia Games, so this is good practice today as we learn how to attain more points.”
Completing the top-three were Italy’s experienced duo of Enrica Piccoli and Lucrezia Ruggiero with a score of 296.8302pts for their ‘hypnosis’ themed routine. It marked a dramatic improvement in form for the pair, who were 15th in the Tech final on Saturday.
“We were just a bit nervous yesterday, but today we just decided to go for it because we feel so deeply and like it [their routine] so much,” said Picolli.
Ruggerio added; “Yesterday was not a good day and I did not sleep well last night but today we stayed focused, tried not to be nervous and we’re happy with what we did.”
The breakthrough Mixed Duet stars of 2025 rounded off their second World Cup season with a further outstanding display to claim their second Super Final title in Toronto.
Olympic silver medallist Izzy Thorpe and European champion Ranjuo Tomblin, winners of the Mixed Duet Technical final on Friday, were in fine form once more, despite feeling a little fatigue after a packed schedule.
They attained an overall total of 264.3033 points for the energetic delivery of their routine which focused on the ‘conflict between light and day’.
It was Thorpe’s third medal in Toronto, following her Women’s Duet silver alongside Olympic medal-winning team-mate Kate Shortman, while for Tomblin it was his fourth gold medal across the three-day contest, with the 20-year-old having also won each of the Men’s Solo competitions.
“It feels very good to have put out the performances we have and we’re happy with the improvements we’re making which is really important heading towards the Europeans,” Tomblin told World Aquatics.
Thorpe added:
"The goal is to achieve performance improvement and have a good experience. We’re leaving Toronto with a great deal of confidence"
Claiming second and recording their best-ever result on the World Cup circuit were Chile’s Nicolas Campos and Theodora Garrido, who achieved a score of 244.7409pts.
Nargiza Bolatova and Viktor Druzin rounded off the podium places with a score of 243.8800, which edged out Italy’s Filippo Pelati and Lucrezia Ruggiero (242.7833), who had placed second in the Tech event.
The last contest of the 2026 World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final in Toronto, Canada, saw 11 nations line-up for the Team Acrobatic gold medal showdown.
The host nation followed Sweden in to the water and a score of 213.4828pts for their ‘Spiders’ threads’ routine would see them top the standings for much of the final.
It was only in the latter stages where first Japan and then Mexico moved ahead of them. Just one nation could deny them a place on the podium, but that nation was China and the reigning Olympic as well as World champions were unlikely to miss out on gold.
So it would prove, with the nation which featured six of those who helped China claim the World title at Singapore 2025, attaining an overall score of 243.3207pts.
Duet champions Lin Yanjun and Xu Huiyan were again among China’s gold medal-winning team line-up who attained a commanding combined total of 243.3207pts.
Japan (234.9403pts) would take silver, with Mexico (220.5452pts) completing the podium places.
“We’re feeling a little disappointed with the score because we did a really perfect performance, but it wasn’t enough for gold,” reflected Japan’s Tomoka Sato. “It’s okay though, because it means we need to do more practice and train to get closer to the gold.”
Mexico’s Itzamary Gonzalez said her team were “happy” with their performances and “really proud” of their bronze medal. “This is our first time with a clean swim without base marks and we have been waiting three days for this medal, so it feels amazing.”
While the World Cup season has now reached its conclusion, many of the world’s best athletes will now switch their focus to respective continental championships: the Central American and Caribbean Games (24 July-8 Aug), European Championships (31 July-5 Aug), South American Games (12-26 Sept) and Asian Games (26-28 Sept).
The best young artistic swimmers will return to the pool for the World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary (12-16 August).