Diving, open water swimming and water polo ship drama throughout two venues as Masters Championships enter closing phases

The European Aquatics Masters Championships 2026 continued in Samorin and Graz over the previous three days, with the open water swimming programme starting and the diving programme persevering with on the respective places with a collection of high quality performances and memorable moments.

The springboard programme in Graz produced tight finishes all through the second day because it received underway following a powerful opening. In the lads’s 3m Springboard 35-39 class, Germany’s Stephan Alt (SSV Freiburg) held off Finland’s Aatu Keranen by fewer than two factors, successful with 255.20 to a rating of 253.30. Germany’s Sebastian Becher took third.

Sweden’s Kirill Zakharov gained the 30-34 class with 239.50, whereas Poland’s Marcin Kulczycki, who spoke to European Aquatics about how he returned to the game following a close to ten-year hiatus and while working for the organisation, topped the 25-29 subject with 246.70 forward of Britain’s Iain St John.

The girls’s springboard occasions spanned the oldest age teams on the programme. Austria’s Irmtraud Bohn gained the 85-89 class, Germany’s Gabriella Gulyas took the 80-84 title, and Britain’s Jenni Cluskey gained the 75-79 group forward of Finland’s Marja Salonius and Sweden’s Tunde Maday. Austria’s Grete Kugler gained the 70-74 class, and the Netherlands’ Yvonne van der Meer topped the 65-69 subject with 203.00.

The schedule then turned to the 1m boards, Austria’s Luis Mario Olave Lopez gained the lads’s 65-69 class forward of France’s Thierry Pichon and Hungary’s Janos Kormos, whereas Sweden’s Per Lovgren gained the 60-64 title. In the older teams, Lithuania’s John Deininger (85-89), the Netherlands’ Yal Bashtbavi (75-79) and Hungary’s Frederic Fiedler (70-74) all took their respective titles.

Germany’s Bernadett Schroder gained the ladies’s 3m 55-59 class with 201.00 forward of compatriot Kerstin Happke, whereas Sweden’s Madeleine Jarl gained the 60-64 title. On the lads’s 1m board, Germany’s Markus Braun gained the 55-59 class, edging Sweden’s Olle Strombeck by simply over 5 factors.

In the 40-54 age teams, Norway’s Jarle Jokiel (50-54), NAB athlete Roman Nekrasov (45-49) and Italy’s Federico Tortarolo (40-44) all gained their classes on the lads’s 1m board. On the ladies’s 3m board, the Netherlands’ Astrid Swager narrowly beat Germany’s Manuela Pach within the 45-49 class, 185.35 to 183.30, whereas Czechia’s Marie Sebkova gained the 40-44 title.

The consideration then turned to day three, as Denmark’s Ane Naur Jensen gained the ladies’s 3m Springboard 25-29 class with 185.20, whereas Norway’s Nora Hamrell, the one entrant within the 20-24 group, posted 142.20.

Finland’s Aatu Keranen went one higher than his day-two silver, successful the lads’s 1m 35-39 class with 272.45. Sweden’s Kirill Zakharov and Britain’s Iain St John gained the 30-34 and 25-29 titles respectively.

Germany’s Uschi Freitag gained the ladies’s 3m 35-39 class with 248.05, and compatriot Antonia Pawlowski took the 30-34 title with 230.70.

The 3m synchro occasions produced a number of the closest scoring of the Championships. In the ladies’s 100+ class, Sweden’s Madeleine Jarl and Gunilla Etsare beat Germany’s Bernadett Schroder and Jana Oertel by simply 0.18 of a degree — 166.08 to 165.90. Hungary’s Peter Slegel and Janos Kormos gained the lads’s 100+ synchro title, whereas Germany’s Erik Seibt and Stephan Alt topped the lads’s 40-99 class.

Pawlowski and Freitag paired as much as win the ladies’s 40-99 synchro with 202.23, whereas within the blended occasions Seibt partnered Schroder to win the 100+ class and Pach teamed with Becher to win the 40-99 group.

The Championships’ open water programme came about at a canal not removed from the X-Bionic Sphere, which was the place the swimming came about. Proceedings opened with the 4x1km relays. In the lads’s 240-279 combined-age class, Ireland’s Aer Lingus Masters gained two of the highest three locations, with their B staff taking gold in 58:31.58 effectively away from their very own A staff, greater than 16 minutes again in second. Austria’s Atus Judenburg completed third.

Hungary’s Bacsviz-KVSC edged Austria’s SC Vienna Oldies within the males’s 200-239 class, 56:25.70 to 56:33.52. Estonia’s U-Klubi, the one entrant within the 280-319 class, and Italy’s Chiese Nuoto ASD, which featured brothers Davis and Nicolas Panieri, within the 120-159 group each gained their divisions unopposed.

In the ladies’s occasions, Israel’s Aquatkim gained the 240-279 class, Ireland’s Aer Lingus Masters gained the 200-239 group, Austria’s SU Citynet Hall took the 160-199 title, and Slovenia’s SD Riba Ljubljana gained the 120-159 class as the only entrant.

The blended relays noticed Estonia’s U-Klubi win the 280-319 class, Ireland’s Aer Lingus Masters take the 240-279 title, Austria’s SC Hakoah Wien win the 200-239 group, and Spain’s CN Aquamasters beat Serbia’s PK Vojvodina within the 120-159 class. Germany’s DSC 1898 Dresden gained the blended 80+ class forward of ASC Gottingen 1846.

The particular person 1.5km races on day two spanned the total breadth of the Masters age vary. Germany’s Alisa Fatum-Boker gained the ladies’s 25-34 class in 17:44.12, whereas compatriot Jenny Wachsmuth topped the 35-44 subject in 18:32.39.

Amongst the older athletes was Britain’s Michael Read, born in 1941, who accomplished the lads’s 85-89 race in 32:46.06, and France’s Christian Araud, born in 1940, completed the identical class in 55:22.57. Switzerland’s Kurt Frei gained the lads’s 80-84 group, Germany’s Helmut Hertelendy took the 75-79 title, and Norway’s Sverre Kile gained the 70-74 class.

Belgium’s Steven Claes gained the lads’s 20-29/35-39 wave outright in 16:35.55, whereas Italy loved a robust exhibiting throughout the youthful males’s classes: Francesco Ghettini gained the 30-34 group, Claudio Fantoni the 40-44 group, Nicola Nisato the 45-49 title, Andrea Marcato the 50-54 class, and Luca Di Iacovo the 55-59 group. France’s Benoit-Marie Vassent gained the lads’s 60-64 class, and Spain’s Enrique Mata Diaz took the 65-69 title.

In the ladies’s older classes, Spain’s Maria Ramo Guillen Munoz gained the 65-69 group, the Netherlands’ Liselotte Joling took the 50-54 title, Ireland’s Norma Cahill gained the 60-64 class, and Italy’s Eleonora Ferrando gained the 55-59 group. Italy’s Valentina Lugano gained the mixed 20-24/45-49 wave within the 45-49 class.

The preliminary phases of the water polo programme additionally started on the X-Bionic Sphere, with groups from virtually each potential age class getting caught in with some high-quality play because the competitors involves a head.

The competitors now enters its closing stage, with two extra days of diving and one closing day of open water swimming to come back, in addition to the water polo medals to be determined.

Click here for the start lists and results from the competition.

Click here to watch all of the action on EuroAquaticsTV.

Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics