Ranjuo Tomblin clinched a stunning Men's Tech Solo victory at the opening leg of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup to add another chapter of history in the sport to his fledgling career.
The 19-year-old - who became Britain's first male European champion in artistic swimming last year - came out on top of a supremely contested event in Paris, with less than a point separating the podium places.
Tomblin's routine saw him awarded a total score of 214.3966 from the judges, with a 27.5000 difficulty, 89.9000 scoring for artistic impression and an execution tally of 124.4966, meaning a first medal for a British male at a World Cup. Eduard Kim of Kazakhstan took silver on 213.8167 and Spain’s Jordi Caceres Iglesias won bronze on 213.5992.
So early in the season, this World Cup event is being used by the Aquatics GB team as a chance for athletes to work through routines and build into the campaign. Instead, Ranjuo was left to reflect on another stunning achievement and his first senior global medal, six months after watching Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe set new standards in winning GB's first Olympic artistic swimming medal in the same city.
"I totally didn't expect it, we just came here to test our routines, I'm really grateful to have the chance to test our routines at the big competitions, so I'm just really happy and I can't really believe this has happened!" he said.
"The previous achievements [have helped] and I would also say the help of Kate [Shortman] and Izzy [Thorpe], who are really opening the door for us as a newer generation of athletes. They've made us realise that Great Britain is actually quite good at this sport, and that has given us a lot of confidence.
"When you win medals, it's definitely like, 'oh look, look at what I'm doing' and it really shows what all the hard work is doing for us. I try not to think about [previous success], I really come here to the World Cups to test routines because with the new rules we're a bit unsure what to declare, so I'm really happy this happened and I probably won't be able to relieve believe it for a couple of days!"
Earlier in the day, young duo Robyn Swatman and Eve Young placed eighth in the Women's Tech Duet final, scoring 228.9084 for their routine as they gained valuable senior duet experience at a top-level competition, while Loya Cenkci was 18th in the Women's Tech Solo competition.
Follow all the results from the first leg of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup on the World Aquatics website.