MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/. Russian synchronized swimming pair of Olesya Platonova and Alexander Maltsev grabbed gold on Friday in a mixed free routine at the 2021 European Aquatics Championships, taking place in the Hungarian capital of Budapest between May 10 and 23.

The judges awarded Platonova and Maltsev 93.9333 points for their performance, which earned them the gold. Spain’s duo of Emma Garcia and Pau Ribes clinched the silver earning 86.5333 points and the bronze went to the Italian pair of Isotta Sportelli and Nicolo Ogliari (81.8667 points).

Maltsev, 25, is a pioneer in Russian men’s synchronized swimming and he already packs four gold and two silver medals of the World Championships in addition to six gold medals of the European Championships.

In January 2020, The European Swimming League (LEN) presented Maltsev with the LEN Award of the 2019 best European athlete in Men’s Artistic Swimming. In 2015 and 2017 he was named by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) as the best male artistic swimmer.

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 eight gold, two silver and two bronze medals. Italy is in second place with four gold, two silver and six bronze, while Ukraine closes out the top three taking home three gold, four silver and one bronze 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.