MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russia’s artistic swimming pair of Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko took home the gold on Thursday in a duet technical routine at the 2021 European Aquatics Championships, taking place in the Hungarian capital of Budapest between May 10 and 23.

The judges awarded Romashina and Kolesnichenko 96.2904 points for their performance, which earned them the gold. Ukraine’s duo of Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk clinched the silver earning 92.6862 points and the bronze went to the Austrian pair of Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini-Marina Alexandri (89.4592).

Romashina, 31, is a 21-time World Champion, five-time Olympic champion and 12-time European champion. The Russian synchronized swimming star was never defeated in all sports tournaments, where she competed.

Her teammate Kolesnichenko, 27, is the 2016 Olympic champion (team event) in addition to being a 16-time world champion and a 10-time European champion.

The duet technical routine was initially scheduled to be held on May 10, but the competition was moved to a later date due to a technical musical problem.

Tatiana Danchenko, the Russian synchronized swimming duo’s coach, told TASS after the competition that it was hard for Romashina and Kolesnichenko to readjust to a later date, but the athletes coped well with the difficulties that had arisen.

"It was difficult. We did not hold training for two days, since group and duo free competitions were in progress during this period," Danchenko pointed out. "It was very hard to maintain synchronization after they were left without a possibility of working on their technical duo performance."

"But the girls nailed it and we have successfully overcome all difficulties," the coach said. "We managed to refresh everything during our [pre-competition] warm-ups today. I am very glad."

The 2021 European Aquatics Championships event in Budapest consists of competitions in four disciplines, namely Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Artistic Swimming and Diving. The Open Water Swimming competitions are being held at Lupa Lake, Hungary, while the rest of the events are being hosted by the Danube Arena.

The championship’s competitions in the Artistic Swimming category offer ten sets of medals in various routines and run between May 10 and 15.

The Russian national team currently leads the overall medals standings of the 2021 European Aquatics Championships with five gold and two bronze medals. Italy is in second place with three gold, two silver and four bronze, while Ukraine closes out the top three taking home two gold and three silver medals.

The championship in Budapest was initially scheduled to run in 2020 between May 11 and 24, but was postponed due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus.