European Junior gold medallists Kristina Chekhanova (RUS) and Anastasiia Sidorina (RUS) secured their maiden global honour as a pair, securing the Duet Technical title on the second day of the World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships.
Following three gold medals for Russia on the opening day Budapest 2026, Chekhanova and Sidorina, who were both part of their nation’s gold-medal-winning Team Technical line-up on Wednesday, returned as favourites for further success.
Spanish duo Naia Alvarez (ESP) and Daniela Suarez (ESP), the silver medallists at the European Juniors in Munich last month, were the first to take to the water during a session which saw 27 duets compete for podium places.
They attained a strong combined overall score of 289.312 points for their ‘Former Lovers’ themed routine, which which would have been enough to secure gold in Germany.
Russia’s duet were next to take to take the plunge in the Duna Arena and a masterful execution of their choreography to the theme ‘Dance of the ghost ladies’ achieved them an overall score of 300.1509pts.
The only pair who had a chance of overhauling that total came from China, with each of their athletes having been part of their nation’s double gold medal-winning team line-ups at the 2024 World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Peru.
He Zhien (CHN), who claimed Women’s Solo Technical silver on the opening day of competition in Hungary, was joined by Zhou Kunyi (CHN).
They were awarded an overall score of 289.7367pts from the judges, which was enough to ultimately secure silver for China, behind winners Russia and ahead of the third-placed duo from Spain.
The only other event on the second day of competition at Budapest 2026 was the preliminary round of the Women’s Solo Free event.
European gold medallist Ekaterina Shtatnova (RUS) was, as expected, the outstanding athlete in the field, achieving a score of 277.9988 points, which was more than 20pts higher than the nearest rival – Naia Alvarez (ESP) who attained 257.7027pts.
Ginevra Marchetti (ITA), who placed second behind Shtatnova at the European Juniors, was a surprise sixth, but will have a chance to improve her score and placement in the final on Sunday.
Completing the top-three was Zhou Kunyi (CHN), who scored 246.3726pts and would later in the day go on to claim duet silver.
The third day of the World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Budapest will see athletes contest the Mixed Duet Technical Final, as well as the preliminary rounds of the Women’s Duet Free and Team Free events.