Day four of the European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships Hungary 2026 at the Duna Arena produced three finals of the highest quality, with Ukraine’s Alina Polonets claiming a second gold medal of the competition, Russia’s Miroslav Kiselev delivering a stunning platform performance, and a pairing that carries one of diving’s most famous surnames showing they are very much capable of writing their own story.
The finals session opened with the girls B 1m springboard final, and Polonets, who already has a gold medal from the B 3m springboard on day two, demonstrated her consistency once again in the B category this week. She was not at her most dominant, starting third after the first dive, but her second round Forward 2½ Somersaults Pike (105B) and a composed Reverse 1½ Somersaults Pike (303B) in the third pulled her clear to finish on 332.15.
Belarus’s Aliaksandra Puz, also a familiar name from the 3m podium, pushed her all the way to take silver with 327.20. The bronze medal, however, was the one to take the attention of the home crowd.
Hungary’s Luca Fehér, who had finished fifth in the 3m Springboard earlier in the week, held her nerve on home soil to claim third with 321.75, edging Great Britain’s Jameelah Eakin into fourth. “It’s an amazing feeling to stand on the podium at this home Europeans,” Fehér said afterwards. “I cannot be any happier than this. I had a small mistake in the prelims but managed to leave that behind and perform three great dives. We’ve prepared very hard to reach this level, to be able to deliver under pressure and it paid off.”
For Polonets, the double was a source of immense satisfaction. “It was very stressful, both the morning session and the final,” she said. “I’m really happy to make the podium. I think I could do my best here once more. I’m really proud to win another gold medal in such a strong competition.”
Attention then turned to the Boys B platform final, which would have some work to do in order to be as enthralling as the girls A final which took place the previous day. Russia’s Miroslav Kiselev, who won bronze in the B 1m springboard on day two and bronze again in the boys synchro platform alongside Kirill Belavin, produced his finest performance of the week to take gold with 506.45 points, which was a continuation of a series of dominant margins of victory with a gap of 30 points to Ukraine’s Nazarii Kononenko in silver.
Kiselev led from the first dive and never relinquished his position, producing a Back 3½ Somersaults Tuck (207C) in the third round that earned a staggering 87.45 points, which also carried on the trend of tuck dives seeing particular success at this level.
Kononenko, himself gold in the B 1m springboard, replied with a composed display to take silver on 476.45, while the Netherlands’ Ivan Alexandrov was a fine third with 458.80. Russia’s Egor Dmitriev finished fourth. The gold medal for Kiselev means he now has four medals in as many days.
The evening’s A/B boys 3m synchro final brought Russia gold again, and with it one of the stories of the week. Matvei Pomoshnikov and Ivan Sautin – the son of five-time Olympic gold medallist Dmitri Sautin, one of the greatest platform divers in history – won with 315.63 to extend Russia’s lead at the top of the medal table. The pair led from the first dive and finished 20.34 points clear of Germany’s William Ackmann and Finn Awe in silver, with Ukraine’s Valerii Malieiev and Dmytro Stepanov taking bronze on 291.87.
Their winning fifth dive, a Reverse 1½ Somersaults 3½ Twists Free (5337D) worth 77.70, was the highest-scoring dive of the final and underlined their quality throughout, as they were the only pairing to surpass the 70-mark.
“I am always in close contact with my coach,” Sautin said following the competition. “He even shows me details while I am preparing on the platform. I try to stay calm but you always need to think about what you are doing and prepare your mentality. My legs were shaking before the last dive. There was a lot of stress, but I was confident. I just needed to concentrate and not cool down. It doesn’t matter what my father’s name is. I just need to focus on myself, not look around at who is watching. I go straight to the dive and block out everything else.”
Russia have now taken gold in six of the ten events contested so far. The contest for the Team Trophy as the competition approaches the halfway stage is shaping up as a compelling story, with Ukraine also in contention with the countries taking ten medals apiece so far. Friday brings the A category 1m girls and A 3m boys events, with some of the most anticipated individual events of the week still to come.
Competition continues on Friday with the A 1m girls preliminary and A 3m boys preliminary from 09:30, with finals from 17:15.
Click here to watch all of the action on EuroAquaticsTV.
Click here to access the event page, which includes live start lists and results.
Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
