Ranjuo Tomblin takes European title as Great Britain hit record medal haul

Ranjuo Tomblin won Great Britain’s first European gold in artistic swimming for 39 years as the nation claimed a record medal haul at the European Championships in Serbia.

Great Britain won seven medals in nine events across the five days in Belgrade with Tomblin’s gold the highlight of a remarkable week that included medals in solo, duet, mixed duet and team competitions.

Tomblin’s historic moment came on Thursday when the 18-year-old put in a near faultless performance on his way to the Male Free Solo title.

His routine to ‘Natural’ by Imagine Dragons scored 191.0293 in a clean swim to finish almost eight points clear of world champion Giorgio Minisini.

An emotional Tomblin told Nick Hope after his victory: “I can’t believe that happened! I’m just so thankful for everyone that has supported me along the way.

“I wasn’t coming in to this competition really expecting anything I just wanted to swim my best. Obviously because I had the back injury at the beginning of the season and to be able to do that and beat some of my idols and my main rivals. It’s just an unbelievable feeling.

“I can’t put it into words. I’ve worked so hard, training so much. I’ve made so many sacrifices at home with school, social life and everything and I’m just so happy that it’s finally paid off.

“It’s a moment I’ll never forget in my whole life. It’s a moment I’ll show my children, my grandchildren if I ever have them.

“I hope that I’ll pave the way for other boys in the future, and I’m thankful to all the men before me who have fought for this opportunity for me and all the other boys that are able to compete today.

Broken down he scored 114.0793 for elements and 76.9500 for artistic impression for his performance.

Tomblin ends Championships with four medals

That gold was one of four medals for Tomblin across the week where he completed the full set in Belgrade.

As well as his free solo win he also competed in the Male Technical Solo where he won silver on day two before teaming up with long term mixed duet Beatrice Crass for a pair of bronze medals.

In the technical solo, Tomblin swam his ‘Greatest Show’ routine without a basemark in a clean performance that won Great Britain’s first medal in the event.

He finished in second place just behind Spain’s Dennis Boneu Gonzalez with the two swimmers the only two to break the 200-point-mark.

As for the Mixed Duet, Tomblin and Crass added two more bronzes to their historic European Games medals from 12 months ago.

The duo repeated their results from Poland to finish third in both the Technical Mixed Duet and Free Mixed Duet with a pair of strong performances.

In the free, the pair scored 175.1563 for their ‘Black Panther’ themed display with another basemark free performance.

It was a result which impressed Tomblin after a difficult start to the season. After the event he said: “We got no basemarks, which was our main goal for this competition. We are really happy and glad that we could achieve that.

“For me, I just wanted to swim my best. I didn’t really have any high expectations of myself because I missed months of training with my back injury.

“Obviously it was very hard for Beatrice as well who had to train by herself a lot of time. It was a difficult start of the season, so this bronze feels very good.”

They added to that with Technical bronze where they scored 202.9817 with a strong swim to their Charleston themed display. That earnt the current Swim England Artistic Swimming Talent Athlete of the Year his fourth medal in Serbia. The award is part of the Swim England National Awards ceremony with nominations currently open until to the public until Sunday 7 July. 

Kate and Izzy continue Paris 2024 preparation

Meanwhile, Olympic bound duet Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe continued their final preparations for Paris with another two-medals, just as they did at February’s World Championships.

They improved on their results from Doha with two silvers rather than a silver and a bronze in the Technical and Free Duet.

Only the de Brouwer twins of Bregje Maria Antonia and Noortje Johanna Cornelia could stop them from reaching top spot in two tightly fought finals.

Less than four points split the pairs in each event as Shortman and Thorpe continued their fine form as they target an Olympic medal in France.

Speaking after their Technical Duet silver on Thursday, Thorpe said: “If someone told us 12 months ago that you’d come second at Europeans twice, it would literally be a dream come true.

“We’ve trained so hard and I’m really happy that we have come second, but at the end of the day, it’s not the end of our season – we’ve still got the Olympics to go, so we are still fighting for that place at the Olympics.”

Historic medal for GB team

The week ended with a historic bronze in the Free Team final which was Great Britain’s first European team medal since 1985.

Performing to the theme ‘Female Warriors’ the British squad managed a near-flawless swim, only receiving one basemark, to score of 219.0228 to take the final spot on the podium.

“This bronze feels absolutely incredible,” Robyn Swatman said. “It’s a new team, it’s a new environment, and we’ve all worked really hard this year. It’s definitely been tricky, but I think this has really paid off. Great Britain is coming up in the rankings, we’re improving, just watch out for the future!”

Making up the squad was the eight of Lily Halasi, Florence Blinkhorn, Robyn Swatman, Amelie Williams, Sophie Rowney, Holly Hughes, Eve Young and Eleanor Blinkhorn.

The GB team also finished fourth in the Technical Team final with an impressive swim that scored 211.3692. Eleanor Blinkhorn, Florence Blinkhorn, Rhea Howard, Lily Halasi, Holly Hughes, Sophie Rowney, Robyn Swatman and Eve Young made up the team for that routine.

Swatman also featured in the Technical Solo event which gave her great experience on the European stage. She finished eighth overall with an impressive performance that scored 202.7950.

You can watch back all the action from the European Artistic Swimming Championships on Eurovision Sport with full results available here.