Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Varvara Subbotina claimed the first of Russia's two European Championship gold medals in artistic swimming today, winning the duet technical routine event ©Getty Images

Russia claimed the first two gold medals of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships after winning the opening two artistic swimming events here today.

Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Varvara Subbotina combined to take victory in the duet technical routine before Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev prevailed in the duet technical routine mixed.

Kolesnichenko and Subbotina were the penultimate pair to perform and moved into the lead with a total of 95.1035 points.

Ukraine's Anastasiya Savchuk and Yelyzaveta Yakhno came closest to matching them, but could only manage 92.6188 points for the silver medal.

Italy's Linda Cerutti and Costanza Ferro led before the final two duos took to the pool and ended up finishing third with 89.7519 points.

"We are very happy because our coach has said it was perfect," said Kolesnichenko on winning the first gold medal of the European Championships:

"In every element it was good and the best performance for us. 

"The secret is our coaches. 

"They give their hearts for this competition and when we finish, we look for our coach. 

"This is for our coach."

Russia's Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev came out on top in the duet technical routine mixed event ©Getty Images
Russia's Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev came out on top in the duet technical routine mixed event ©Getty Images

Glasgow 2018 Championships director Colin Hartley congratulated Kolesnichenko and Subbotina on their historic win.

"After years of planning, we are now at the most exciting part of the European Championships journey - competition, and ultimately the medals that will be won by our athletes" he said.

"Huge congratulations must to Svetlana and Varvara, who will long be remembered as the first gold medallists of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships."

The four-team duet technical routine mixed competition saw Gurbanberdieva and Maltsev triumph with 89.5853 points.

World champions Giorgio Minisini and Manila Flamini of Italy were a close second with 88.6973 points.

Spain's Berta Ferreras Sanz and Pau Ribes Culla completed the top three with 82.3217.

Vasileios Gkortsilas and Nikoleta Papageorgiou of Greece missed out on a medal after finishing fourth with 72.7838 points.

Artistic swimming action at Glasgow 2018 is due to continue tomorrow when team free routine final is scheduled to take place.

Russia topped the preliminary standings today with 95.5000 points.

Ukraine ranked second with 93.4333 points, while Spain came third with 91.3333.

Twelve of the 13 teams, excluding Turkey, qualified for the final.