Ranjuo Tomblin and Beatrice Crass make history with European Games bronze

Great Britain’s Ranjuo Tomblin and Beatrice Crass have made history by winning the nation’s first ever artistic swimming medal at the European Games.

They won Team GB’s first medal of the 2023 competition in Poland after they scored 203.4916 for their routine in the Technical Mixed Duet final.

The duet showed impeccable technique to score 117.0916 for elements, 86.4000 for artistic impression with a mark of 26.800 for difficulty to take home the medal.

It saw them finish third of the eight teams competing, where they finished almost 20 points ahead of fourth placed France.

After collecting the medal, Tomblyn told Team GB: “I just honestly can’t believe it.

“I’m still shaking a bit but I hope that by winning this medal I can encourage other boys into the sport and show it’s for everyone.

“It’s not a sport just for females, it’s a sport for anyone. Just look how many males there are, there’s eight mixed duets here and it’s growing and growing – the ultimate goal is to see more boys join the sport.”

The Italian duo of Giorgio Minisini and Lucrezia Ruggiero won gold with a score of 242.3599 with Spain’s Emma Garcia and Dennis Boneu Gonzalez (216.5867) winning silver.

‘It makes it all the training worthwhile’

The two teenagers made history just by competing in the event as they became the first mixed duet to represent Team GB – with Tomblin already the first man to represent Great Britain on the international stage.

“We’re so excited because this is such an honour.” Tomblin added.

“We’ve been wanting to represent Team GB, get in that kit and looking down at the rings, it is really an honour and we are really happy that we are able to do that.

“We never thought this would happen and I’m just so proud to be one of the first Team GB medallists.”

The pair are back in action on Saturday in Krakow for the Mixed Duet Free competition and a thrilled Crass was delighted that their hard work has paid off.

She said: “Getting onto the podium, being able to stand there after all the training we’ve done, and when we’re maybe going through hard days of training, it really does make it all worthwhile – especially doing it together.

“We were facing each other, looking at each other before we went in, hyping each other up and making sure each other was okay.

“We were going through our last-minute corrections, taking lots of deep breaths and watching out for each other.

“It was helpful for me to be in the pool before with the team yesterday – getting that experience being in the competition pool, seeing the judges and getting used to looking at them and presenting the routine.

“We’re both really excited about the future, we have the Mixed Free on the fourth day of this competition and so we’ll be keeping up the same energy as we move towards that.”

The Games got underway in Krakow yesterday where Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe impressed to qualify for Saturday’s Duet Free final in fifth position. GB’s team also finished seventh in the Team Free preliminaries ahead of their final on Sunday.

You can watch all the artistic swimming action from the European Games here with live results and the schedule events available on the European Games website.

Images – British Swimming

As 🥉goes first.. the first medals of the 2023 European Games are awarded to GB’s Beatrice Crass & Ranjuo Tomblin!

Here they are on the podium following a breathtaking performance in the mixed duet technical final. They’ll have the free event on Saturday evening too.#LENAS2023… pic.twitter.com/g8tUYPfvYx

— Nick Hope – the athlete’s journalist (@NickHopeTV) June 22, 2023