Chiara Pellacani clinched an historic fifth title after partnering Elisa Pizzini to victory in an incident-packed women’s 3m synchro final in Paris.
It’s a feat no other diver has ever achieved as she added synchro gold to the women’s 3m, mixed 3m synchro and mixed team event on top of the defence of her women’s 1m title.
The diving programme concluded with a men’s 10m platform final of great quality that saw Neutral Athlete Ruslan Ternovoi, who had already secured 10m synchro gold with Nikita Shleikher, crowning his performance with a fifth-round dive yielding 100.80 which secured him the title with one round to go.
Brilliant performances from two young German athletes – 21-year-old Jaden Eikermann Gregorchuk and 18-year-old Ole Rosler – secured respective silver and gold in a competition where Ukraine’s defending champion Oleksii Sereda finished sixth.
Their efforts helped Germany earn the Championship Trophy, which was presented to their double gold medallist Moritz Wesemann by Otylia Jedrzejczak, EA Bureau Liaison, winner of 200 fly gold amid three medals at Athens 2004.
Pellacani’s contribution was enough to leave Italy top of the medals table with five golds, a silver and a bronze. Germany were second with three golds, four silvers and four bronzes, and Neutral Athletes B finished third with two golds, three silvers and a bronze.
“This means a lot for me, especially with Elisa because we have been working a lot for this moment and it was not easy,” Pellacani told European Aquatics. “But I am so proud of our team because we were able to show all the work we did before coming here.”
Pizzini added: “I was a little bit scared! Because I knew we wanted to bring home gold. But I am so happy that we were able to jump with no stress. We’ve done it together, and it’s so good. I’m so grateful to Chiara that she has me as her partner.”
