The heroes of Day 3 were at their best once more. Sharon van Rouwendaal and Gregorio Paltrinieri have become the undisputed rulers of the lake as both completed the 5-10km double today in open water swimming. Rouwendaal won in a thrilling battle, by 0.3sec, while Paltrinieri came first with an unusually large gap of 11 seconds in the men’s race. Russia and Ukraine earned a title apiece in artistic swimming, German diving legend Patrick Hausding continued his golden run with title No. 17 (for the first time in 3m synchro), and Russia’s 16 years old rookie Anna Konanykhina claimed a shocking win in the women’s 10m, after finishing 11th in the prelims.
FLASH QUOTES http://www.len.eu/?p=17879
At one stage Sharon van Rouwendaal
was leading by eight seconds in the second half of the women’s 10km and in the
past it was a clear sign that the race was over: the Dutch Olympic champion
never let it go once rushing so far ahead. However, this time it was not the
usual dominance, Van Rouwendaal admitted after the event that she was testing
herself as well as the rivals and switched gears much more often than usual.
“I played too much perhaps” she said,
and this burnt too much energy and as the finish commenced, the chasers got
closer and closer to her – over the last 500m Hungary’s Anna Olasz was shoulder
by shoulder with the title-holder. Olasz was a surprise challenger as during
her 10 years in open water she could never claim a medal at majors in 10km, she
had back-to-back silvers from 2014-15 (Berlin, Kazan) in 25km races. But this
morning she kept her position in the leading pack and she became a real threat
on Van Rouwendaal in the finish. The super-tired Dutch could still find some
speed to touch in 0.3sec ahead of Olasz but she had barely left any energy to
parade for the photographers on the pontoon – instead she received some instant
crampeasing foot massage from Rachele Bruni who managed to grab the bronze by
out-touching Spain’s Paula Ruiz Bravo by 0.4sec. The eldest in the field, aged
30, Bruni can now leave Hungary with great feelings, her brilliant senior
career kicked of some 120km away in Lake Balaton at the 2006 Europeans, she won
her first European title in 2008 and now, 13 years apart, she still posed with
a medal in her hand – truly outstanding.
Next came the men’s race, an almost two-hour
heroic battle among the world’s best competitors. It was a fair but constant
fight for the top positions, in the middle of the race German world champion
Florian Wellbrock and titleholder Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary tried to escape
but they didn’t hold their lead too long so the pack was together for most of
the time. Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri, winner of the 5km, threw himself into
the hunt for the leader’s spot after 6000 metres, then disappeared for a while
only to speed up for the last 1000m.
That was a missile-like launch and
soon he gained three body-lengths on his rivals, sailed away before the last
turn and won by an unusually large 11- second gap. Wellbrock could keep his
position to be in the hunt for the minor spoils but Rasovszky couldn’t find a
path to go forward. Instead, Frenchman Marc Antoine Olivier pulled ahead too
and Olympic champion Ferry Weerman also joined the party with his monstrous
strokes. However, the Dutchman kicked off his final assault a bit late and
could not catch Wellbrock and Olivier who finished in the medal positions, with
only 0.3sec separating them. Weertman touched in a second later, Rasovszky was
fifth further two seconds adrift.
In the Duna Arena Russia’s wonder
artistic swimming duet of the two Svetlanas, Romashina and Kolesnichenko added
one more gold to their tally in the technical final (postponed from Monday),
collecting a couple of 9.7s and 9.8s. Romashina’s treasury now contains 12
European titles while Kolesnichenko’s account stands at 10, add that they
earned those from as many entries. Behind them, two of the Alexandri triplets,
Anna Maria and Eirini recalled the good old ‘80s when Austria was among the
leading nations in the sport – now they managed to earn a bronze, 34 years
after the country’s last medal in this discipline.
In the afternoon it was time for
another Ukrainian win, in the free combination (the Russians skipped this
event). It was the usual show from them, with plenty of brilliant lifts and
jumps for a handful of 9.5s and 9.6s. Greece earned the silver, the bronze went
to Belorussia.
The men’s 3m synchro diving final
turned into another triumphant march of Patrick Hausding who is flying high
again. Already a legend with a medalling streak since 2008, Hausding won the 3m
in several editions, first time in 2010, landed wins in the 10m synchro (9 in a
row, an incredible record), was champion in the 1m (again here yesterday) but
this was the first time he could clinch gold in the 3m synchro. Partnering with
Lars Rudiger, they improved by each championships, after a bronze and a silver
now they came first.
Again, it was their balance, which
brought them this title. Their dives in rounds 3-5 were pretty good, two of
them in the range of 85 points and that left room for even for an error in the
last round, they still won by 11 points. The Russians, Evgenii Kuznetsov and
Nikita Sleikher were also good but only one of their dives scored more than 80
points (barely), while Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Oleg Kolodiy
clinched the bronze – they offered the best single dive in the fifth round, the
only 90-pointers in the evening. Britain’s Daniel Goodfellow and Jack Laugher
were second at halfway but a completely missed dive ruined their campaign.
The closing event saw the first 1-2
finish for a country. Russia’s Anna Konanykhina and Iulia Timoshinina claimed
gold and silver respectively in the women’s 10m. The 16 years old rookie,
Konanykhina came up with a really difficult programme and despite two
relatively erroneous dives, the high DDs put her on top since she did the other
three brilliantly, earning a series of 8.5s and 9.0s (the last attempt for
86.40 was the highest scoring dive in the final). It was an amazing turnaround
after the prelims where she finished 11th . Timoshinina was leading by 20
points after three rounds but her last two attempts were faulty ones – still,
she could hold on for the silver as the others had problems too. After a weaker
opening dive, the other teenage rookie of the final, Britain’s Andrea
Spendolini could keep her performance on a fine level to earn the bronze, ahead
of much experienced competitors, like Ukraine’s Sofia Lyskun who came first in
the prelims and Celine van Duijn from the Netherlands who had won the last two
editions.
For detailed results and more click
here http://www.len.eu/?p=17754
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