The 2014 European champion and double world silver medallist, who had not competed internationally for a year, also extended his repertoire at the event.

Having earned top marks for his routine in the men’s singles two competition to finish ahead of Turkey’s Abdul Kadir Ünal and Gavriel Yiannakis of Cyprus, he signalled his intent to broaden his programme ahead of his home World Championships by adding a singles freestyle routine.

Despite having only competed in this discipline in 2014, Machens was adjudged superior in terms of technical skill, choreography and difficulty level.

Cape Verde’s Marco Bontempo and Nilson Pires completed the podium.

There was another surprise return to the dancefloor in the case of former European champion couple Katarzyna Bloch and Marek Zaborowski.

The Polish dancers took on the combi freestyle two, an event they won at the 2016 Europeans, and they were golden again over the weekend, dancing together for the first time since the 2017 World Championships in Malle in Belgium.

Slovakian dancers rounded off the top three, with Maria Dutkova and Martin Šolc taking second place and their compatriots Maria Gazdikova and Maroš Olejar third.

Poland had more to celebrate with former swimmer Julia Sadkowska earning her first career gold medal. 

The relative newcomer made her name known at last year’s European Championships in November with bronze in the women’s single one.

This time in Frankfurt she put on a winning routine to take the gold medal, followed by Belgium’s Roswitha van Dorpe and Maria Manakou of Cyprus.

Finland’s Tuuli Harju and Timo Pyykkonen earned triple gold.

The 2018 European bronze medallists captured the title in the combi freestyle one, combi standard one and combi Latin one competitions.

Belgium’s Sofie Cox danced to a pair of gold medals in the women’s singles and freestyle two.