The European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships Hungary 2026 got underway today in Budapest’s Duna Arena with the mixed team event, which was won by Russia.
Italy – sixth after round one and fourth at the halfway point – finished strongly to claim silver.
Ukraine – which took the team trophy at last year’s edition of these Championships in Athens with six gold, three silver and three bronze medals – held first place for the first two rounds but eventually had to settle for bronze.
The Russian quartet of Nadezhda Trifonova, Ilia Nadeev, Aleksandra Kedrina and Miroslav Kiselev moved from second to first place in round three.
The team consolidated its position in the fifth and penultimate round with Kiselev producing the highest-scoring dive of the event, an Armstand Back 3 Somersaults (626C) with a degree difficulty of 3.3 that yielded 80.85 points.
“It is a really cool atmosphere,” Kiselev told European Aquatics. “I have dreamed about competing in my first European Championships. Everything is top class.”
The winning total was 376.95, with Italy – represented by Giorgia Tasca, Raffaele Pelligra, Matilde Marzetti and Davide Barberi – finishing on 350.15 with large thanks to a penultimate effort that scored of 68.45 from a Forward 4-1/2 Somersaults with a degree difficulty of 3.7.
“We are really happy,” said Pelligra. “We know our team can do better but we are really grateful about what we did and we hope to do even better in the next competition.”
Marzetti added: “We are really happy about this! When the competition was done we saw we took the medal and I hugged my team mates. We realise that while we can improve our dives this is still a good start.”
Ukraine, fielding Yelyzaveta Diadiuk, Nazarii Kononenko, Valerii Malieiev and Sofiia Vystavkina, dropped from second to third after a third round score of 54.60 and a concluding 41.60 for an Inward 3-1/2 Somersaults (407C, DD 3.2) was insufficient to improve their position.
Ukraine finished on 327.20, with fourth place going to Belarus on 314.00.
“We are happy, but not so happy because we didn’t do all our dives well,” said Ukraine’s Diadiuk. “But third place is not so bad.”
Germany, who took this title in Athens last year, fielded an entirely new team including Finn Awe, who won world junior gold in the Boys’ 1m and 3m springboard events in 2024.
The Germans were in bronze-medal position after three of the six dives but eventually finished fifth with a total of 313.05.
The final was followed immediately by the Opening Ceremony in the spectacular surroundings of a venue that hosted World Championships in 2017 and 2022 as well as the European Championships in 2021.
Hungary last staged these Championships back in 2009, but it is the first time junior divers have had a chance to compete at the iconic venue.
The event will conclude on Sunday, June 28 with the A Girls’ springboard final and the A Boys’ platform final.
Click here to watch all of the action on EuroAquaticsTV.
Click here to access the event page, which includes live start lists and results.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
