Dennis Gonzalez and Mireia Hernandez took Spain’s medal count at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore to six as they earned silver in the mixed duet technical routine.

On a day when Kazakhstan’s defending champions Nargiza Bolatova and Eduard Kim finished seventh, gold went to the neutral athletes Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev on 233.2100 – six years after they had won their first world title together in the same event.

Bronze went to Italy’s pairing of 18-year-old Filippo Pelati and Lucrezia Ruggiero, who won this title in 2022 with Giorgio Minisini, who retired last year and was watching her latest performance from the stands.

It was a third title in Singapore for the 30-year-old Maltsev, who had already won men’s solo technical and free gold.

Gonzalez, 21, won silver in this event at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka in partnership with the now-retired Emma Garcia before finishing fourth with medical student Hernandez at last year’s edition in Doha.

Gonzalez and Hernandez totalled  230.4634 finish one place ahead of Italy’s 18-year-old Filippo Pelati and Lucrezia Ruggiero, who claimed bronze in 228.0275.

“We understand each other very well,” Hernandez told World Aquatics. “We tried to convey how we let the magic flow in our lives through our duet.”

Pelati, who had earned his first senior world medal two days earlier after finishing third in the men’s solo free event, said: “I prefer this medal; it has a different meaning for me. This medal is for all the training with Lucrezia.

“I really enjoyed the moment and didn’t overthink. I was only thinking of the next step, the corrections, elements, the technicality of the routine – and to do a clean swim with an artistic impression.”

Britain’s new pairing of Paris 2024 silver medallist Isabelle Thorpe and Ranjuo Tomblin finished fourth on 226.0899.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics