Triple European champion Zakhar Trofimov (RUS) continued his stunning run of successes over the last six weeks by adding a second gold to his collection at the World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Hungary.
Follow victory in the Men’s Solo Technical event on Wednesday, he reunited with Russian partner Alina Rumiantseva (RUS) in the Mixed Duet Technical Final, where they followed up their European Junior success with another landmark honour.
Together, while performing their ‘Love to hate’ themed-routine in Germany last month, they attained an overall score of 224.2434 points and five weeks on they showed even greater mastery of their incredible routine.
A combined total of 234.1350pts on the third day of competition at the iconic Duna Arena in Hungary’s capital, saw them ultimately ease to victory, despite spirited efforts from the assembled field.
Of the 12 rival duets Martina Garcia (ESP) and Eneko Sanchez (ESP) proved to be their strongest opponents, with the European Junior silver-medal-winning Spaniards achieving a score of 221.6983pts, 12.4367 short of Russia’s total.
Completing the podium places were Chen Keyu (CHN) and Jin Yanxiao (CHN) who won silver as part of China’s Open Team Technical line-up on Thursday.
Away from the solo medal event on day three of Budapest 2026 there were also two preliminary rounds of competition. The first saw 44 athletes take on the Women’s Duet Free event, before 12 nations returned in the afternoon for initial round of the Team Free competition.
European silver medallist Naia Alvarez (ESP) and Daniela Suarez (ESP) edged out the Munich 2026 champions Kristina Chekhanova (RUS) and Anastasiia Sidorina (RUS), with just 0.2733 points separating their duos.
He Zhien (CHN) and Zhou Junyi (CHN) were just 2.0537pts short of Russia’s total, suggesting the final could be one of the most entertaining show-downs of the entire competition.
The top ranked nation in the Team Free was Russia, who also won the European title in the event last month. They scored 268.7895pts for their ‘Predators’ themed choreography, with Spain (257.3944) second and China (248.2734) third.
The penultimate day of the 2026 World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships in Hungary will see athletes compete for medals across three disciplines – Women’s Duet Free, Mixed Duet Free and Team Acrobatic.