Courtesy: European Aquatics
Austria, Great Britain and Italy won titles on the final day of the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Championships Funchal 2025 as Spain claimed the overall Championships Trophy by winning medals in all 11 events, including five golds.
The day’s opening women’s and men’s solo technical finals were won in outstanding fashion by Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri and Great Britain’s Ranjuo Tomblin respectively, with Italy topping the podium in the concluding team acrobatic event.
Alexandri, who won the women’s solo free and technical titles but only elected to defend the latter in Funchal, had to wait until the last day to make her appearance in this competition – but it proved well worth it.
The 27-year-old, whose triplet sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina won duet technical gold on the opening day, retained her title in commanding fashion, delivering a sharp and captivating Cleopatra-themed routine that marked a major step up from her season debut in the World Cup just a few weeks earlier.
Although her difficulty had only increased slightly since then, the jump in execution and elements scores told the real story: a confident, commanding swim that earned her 257.2400 and a second consecutive European title in this event for the young woman voted best female artistic swimmer of 2024 in the European Aquatics Awards.
“This gold really means a lot,” she told European Aquatics. “I was a little bit stressed because I had to wait the whole week to compete. It was long, but today, I felt very powerful and I think it showed in the water.
“I’m very happy I could repeat my success from last year. But honestly, I am just happy to be here at all, it has been a difficult season. We started a little bit late, with my sisters we only trained with our new coach [Takako Nakajima] for the past three months, so I am very happy about this result, it is very meaningful to achieve this.”
Spain’s Iris Tio Casas added yet another medal to her collection in Funchal, capturing silver with a poignant and heartfelt performance to Rosalia’s Me quedo contigo. The two-time Olympian opened the day’s programme with strong technique and emotional depth, earning 249.0917 and setting a high bar that held for most of the event. Tio Casas finishes her week with six medals from six entries.
“Right now, I feel tired, but also very happy,” she said, laughing. “We achieved our goals, and I am happy I could show my best here. I am proud of my team and I am happy that we are doing a good job here. Now we look ahead to be even better at the World Championships.”
Germany’s Klara Bleyer completed the podium with 246.9650, adding a bronze to her growing collection. Already crowned European champion in the solo free, and having won a duet free bronze yesterday, Bleyer continued to impress with a routine themed on Spain, developed with Spanish Olympian Ona Carbonell.
Victory in the men’s event went to Great Britain’s 19-year-old Ranjuo Tomblin, who won silver in the technical last year as well as earning gold in the solo free.
Having already earned bronze in the men’s free, Tomblin delivered a bold and steady routine to The 5th by David Garrett, backed by the highest declared difficulty in the field.
While the margins were slim in difficulty, it was his consistency and superb execution that made the difference today. His score of 234.4225 earned him the second European solo title of his career.
“It feels really good to win this medal,” he said. “My technical solo is one of my strongest routine, so it’s nice that it’s getting recognised. I have had a lot of opportunities to compete at the World Cups this year, which has helped me gain experience, and I’m very happy that it has paid off.”
Italy’s Filippo Pelati, 18, continued his break-out meet with yet another podium finish. The reigning world youth and European junior champion showed no signs of hesitation with his shark-themed routine, earning 232.6259. Pelati finishes his campaign here with four medals across his four events – three silvers and a bronze.
“I am very happy and proud of my swim today” he said. “I showed my new technical routine about sharks, I have really loved choreographing this routine with my coaches, thinking of all the angles, the looks, the moves to look like a shark.”
Spain’s Dennis Gonzalez Boneu, the defending champion, had a more difficult outing. Debuting a brand-new routine to Billie Eilish’s Lovely, he was unfortunately hit with a zero on one of his required technical elements, which ended up being a costly error in a tight field. Even so, his artistry and execution on the remaining elements carried him to bronze with a score of 213.6642.
“Today was not very good, but not every day can be a good day,” he said. “I enjoyed the routine, but I made a mistake that I will correct for the next competition. This is a learning experience.
“I think now, it’s more about my mental, because when I train, I train well. But in competition, it’s easier for me to do routines with my teammates, so I need to change my mindset for the solo.
“This event makes me feel small, so I need to prepare more to handle this pressure and to show how well I can do it, because I know I can. I am happy to still have a medal, and also for my friends on the podium today, they deserve it a lot.”
The 2025 European Championships came to a spectacular close with the team acrobatic final, one of the most anticipated events of the week.
With reigning champions Germany absent from this event, the door was wide open for a new champion to emerge. Italy seized the moment with a brilliant and historic performance to claim its first-ever European title in a team event. Performing a lively and razor-sharp Chicago-themed routine, the Italians delivered clean, creative, and high-flying acrobatics with superb thematic interpretation, earning 208.4609 for the top spot.
“This is a really good feeling, we didn’t expect it because we only had the third degree of difficulty,” Alessia Macchi said. “When we finished, seeing everyone cheering for us was such an amazing feeling, and we knew we had just done our best.”
Ukraine repeated their silver medal win of last year their Geometry of Magic routine. Boasting the highest declared degree of difficulty of the field (23.213), the Ukrainian team performed with striking precision as well, scoring 202.7965.
“We are so happy about this medal and we enjoyed this routine a lot,” Oleksandra Goretska said. “We have very hard acrobatics in this programme, so it is a lot of good emotions for us to succeed in all of them. Now, we will prepare for the European Junior Championships in Greece.”
Spain debuted a brand-new routine set to Abracadabra by Lady Gaga and immediately cast a spell on the audience. The choreography was bursting with energy and personality; you could clearly see how much the swimmers enjoyed performing it.
Despite not being credited for one of their acrobatic movements they still earned 202.6892 for bronze, finishing just a tenth of a point behind Ukraine.
Spain’s artistic impression score was massive, and one of their acros even earned two perfect 10s from the Elements judges, underscoring the routine’s stand-out moments. All in all, it was already a crowd-pleasing, high-impact performance for a choreography that is only a few weeks old.
“We did our choreography only three weeks ago,” Txell Mas said. “We tried to replicate the movements of Lady Gaga’s music video, and our message is to show the freedom of love, that every kind of love is okay, and that we have to keep fighting for this.
“We are happy that we could bring this routine to life here. It’s very intricate choreography with difficult acrobatics, but we are very proud of what we did today. Now the next step is the World Cup Super Final, already next week! We are ready for everything, and it’s time to keep fighting.”
Spain leaves Funchal as the undisputed overall champion after a display of extraordinary talent, consistency, depth, and versatility across solo, duet, mixed duet, and team events.
