Tomblin a thread through GB’s Artistic European medal successes

[Article images courtesy of European Aquatics]

Involved in all four of Great Britain’s medals at the 2025 European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Championships, Ranjuo Tomblin crowned his competition with Men’s Solo Tech gold – adding to his Mixed Duet Tech silver alongside Isabelle Thorpe, Mixed Duet Free bronze with Holly Hughes, and a further individual bronze in the Men’s Solo Free.

Victory in the Men’s Solo Tech was an upgrade on the silver won last year in this event on the European stage for Tomblin, who 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 on achieving his score of 234.4225, which earned him the second European solo title of his career to date.

“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.”

From silver to gold! 🇬🇧🥇@Aquatics_GB's Ranjuo Tomblin goes one better than Belgrade to win Solo Tech gold at #Funchal2025.

📺 @EurovisionSport #EuropeanAquatics #ArtisticSwimming pic.twitter.com/zm8ta4mIhI

— European Aquatics (@EuroAquatics) June 5, 2025

Making a strong impression in their international debut in the Mixed Duet Tech, Tomblin and Thorpe came very close to the European title but had to settle for silver with 214.9441.

The British pair brought a dynamic new presence to the event, with Thorpe – who partnered Kate Shortman to two duet silvers at last year’s Championships before taking silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics – making an appearance in mixed duet for the first time in her career.

Swimming to Sax by Fleur East, they impressed with the highest Degree of Difficulty in the final and a confident, energetic routine.

“This is very exciting, as this is our first time swimming together in competition,” Thorpe commented.

“We’re really excited for the rest of the season and to see what we can do with a bit more training together.

“I’ve been really enjoying this experience, it’s so different for me. My whole career, I’ve been swimming duet with Kate [Shortman]. Actually this is my first competition without her at all, so it’s a bit strange, but I’ve really been having a lot of fun swimming in mixed duet.”

The Mixed Duet Free final saw a repeat of the 2024 podium in terms of countries, but with new partnerships across the board and a continuing, fierce battle between reigning champions Spain, Italy and Great Britain.

Already European Junior bronze medallists in this event, Tomblin and Hughes rounded out the podium with bronze for their engaging and theatrical Snakes routine, scoring 283.0990 – demonstrating their chemistry and creative presentation continued to shine at the senior level.

“It’s a great experience for us,” Hughes said. “This is our first senior Europeans together, so we’ve come up with a good result. Our routine went quite well with the way that we planned out, especially as we’ve been to previous World Cups in the year, so we’ve worked on the bits that went wrong to try and get a good result here.”

Approaching the Men’s Solo Free as defending champion from 2024, Tomblin was prevented from a title repeat after receiving a basemark against his routine.

Still, his score of 173.3837 was enough to reach the podium in bronze position with his performance, set to Rock Me Amadeus.

“This result still feels really good,” he said. “I’ve upped my degree of difficulty for this competition, but obviously, I unfortunately got a basemark. So I’ve got a few things to work on, especially for the World Championships.”

Aside from the medals, Great Britain’s youthful artistic swimming team continued to mature experiences on the international stage, with top-10 finished for Eve Young and Robyn Swatman in the Women’s Duet Tech and the Team Tech, while Loya Cencki placed 13th overall in the Women’s Solo Tech.

Full results from the 12 Artistic Swimmers selected for the 2025 European Aquatic Artistic Swimming Championships can be found below, with extended details on the European Aquatics website.

Aquatics GB results at the European Aquatics Artistic Swimming Championships (2nd-5th June 2025):

Monday 2nd June

Women’s Duet Technical: Eve Young and Robyn Swatman – 8th

Mixed Duet Technical: Isabelle Thorpe and Ranjuo Tomblin - SILVER

Tuesday 3rd June

Men’s Solo Free: Ranjuo Tomblin - BRONZE

Wednesday 4th June

Mixed Duet Free: Holly Hughes and Ranjuo Tomblin – BRONZE

Team Tech: Robyn Ashworth, Katherine Boitsidis, Loya Cencki, Holly Hughes, Jessica Hinxman, Sophie Rowney, Magdalena Townsend and Cara Zeidler – 8th

Thursday 5th June

Women’s Solo Tech: Loya Cencki – 13th

Men’s Solo Tech: Ranjuo Tomblin - GOLD