Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Instant Recaps and Athlete Insights Day 3 from the Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Finals


 

Written by:World Aquatics Communication Department

Image Source: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Image

Welcome back for the third and final day of competition at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup - Super Finals in Oviedo, Spain. Spain has been on a podium parade through the first two days of competition at the Piscinas Parque del Oeste. Can this continue with the Mixed and Women's Duet Free events and the Acrobatic Routine? Let's find out!

 

ACROBATIC

UKRAINE – Gold Medallists – 216 points

Valeriya Tyshchenko – We feel really excited now. We had a lot of hope we could perform at our best and we did it. Having these gold medals confirms this sense.

We really like this routine. Its one of our all time favourite routines, which you can hear in the routine’s name: It’s Time to Smile. Everytime when we do this routine, we’re smiling. It has good music and we’re always in a good mood when we perform it. We like to do a dynamic routine with lifts. Of course, to do a good acrobatic it’s something you have to train, and train a lot. Again and again and again we’re working to get this kind of outcome.

CANADA – Silver Medallists – 197 points

ISRAEL – Bronze Medallists – 191 points

Ariel Nassee – I think Acrobatic is our favourite routine. It combines so many different things and parts of our sport. You have the artistic elements mixed with the acrobatic elements.  We have to play with the music. Our acrobatic routine is about dreams and we really to make our choreography on this theme.

Also, in the acrobatics, there’s less difficulty of the legs from the new system. We like to do it because it’s different, something new and fun for us.

Shelly Bobritsky –  The responsibility is much greater now on the lifting. If you don’t do the lifts, your difficulty degree falls greatly. We’re happy with all our lifts and with today’s energy – we brought very high energy today.

CHINA

Feng Yu – We had to swim with grace and power and do something new. We feel pretty good with today’s performance. We overcame our fear and just trusted each other.

 

Women Solo Free

ISRAEL – Ariel Nassee and Shelly Bobritsky – Gold Medallists

NASSE: Yes, those were tears of joy. Last week, we changed the difficulty of our dance. Everything has been very intense; we were afraid to do a base mark, but we managed to swim our routine clean and very well.

BOBRITSKY: We were very, very focused. We knew we could win the gold. We are fighting for a medal, so we brought everything we had into this moment. We were focused. We knew exactly what we had to do. And we are very happy that we could make it.

This duet gold follows Isreal’s Mixed Team gold from last night. Did that contribute to this morning’s standout performance?

NASSE: Our motivation was up here, through the roof.

BOBRITSKY: We saw we could do it. So, this morning we woke up and said, “Okay, we can make it twice,” you know? This was our motivation right up to this moment. 

UKRAINE – Vladyslava Aleksiiva and Maryna Aleksiiva – Silver Medallists

VLADYSLAVA ALEKSIIVA: This was the most difficult routine we have ever done.

We know we picked up one base mark during one of our hybrids, but our coach says this was our best-ever performance. If she’s happy, we’re happy. When your coach tells you that you’ve done everything that you can, you can only be happy about it.

MARYNA ALEKSIIVA: We have seven hybrids in the duet free, there are so many rotations, thrusts, spins. You feel like you’re in an underwater disco.

NETHERLANDS – Bregje de Brouwer and Marloes Steenbeek – Bronze Medallists

ITALY – Flamina Vernice and Sarah Maria Rizea – 4th Place

VERNICE: We’re very proud of what we’ve done. We changed this routine only two days ago to heighten the difficulty. Sure, we can do better. But we can be proud at the same time.

 

Mixed Duet Free

CHINA – Cheng Wentao and Shi Haoyu – Gold Medallists with 224 points

CHENG: Our execution in today’s competition was our best. Actually, our entire performance was our best ever.

SHI: We’re so excited and enjoyed this competition. You’ll see us in Fukuoka, definitely.

SPAIN – Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Mireia Hernandez Luna – Silver Medallists with 204 points

HERNANDEZ LUNA: We’re satisfied. We took on the difficult task to change our routine and add in new parts and elements. We had to improve to achieve higher scores. We’re happy with where we are, but we have to keep trying to achieve the goal now.

And the goal is? To go to the World Championships and get a medal. That’s our goal.

COLOMBIA – Jennifer Cerquera Hatiusca and Gustavo Sanchez Acero – Bronze Medallists with 179 points

CERQUERA HATIUSCA: This feels so good. We’ve competed so much this week. We feel the fatigue, but we fight through the tiredness, and I think we did well. We can achieve higher scores – we can add in more difficulty, and we had one base mark on our routine today. We’ll try and get better for the World Championships. 

SANCHEZ ACERO:  From the solos to the duets, I’ve competed so much here at the Super Final. I’m so tired now, but it's all good.

The public certainly recognises the artistic mastery and execution of artistic swimming, but does the public recognise the physical strength and endurance demands of the sport?

SANCHEZ ACERO: Maybe it's because we smile throughout the entire routine that it looks easy. It’s not easy – not at all. And as we add more and more difficulty into the sport and our routines, the physical demands really increase.

GREAT BRITAIN - Beatrice Crass and Ranjuo Tomblin - 4th Place

CRASS on what increasing equality in Artistic Swimming has brought to the sport: We’re the best of friends so it’s really, really fun to swim together. Obviously competing in a Mixed Duet event is different than doing a normal duet with just girls. It’s exciting trying out new combinations. The possibilities with a mixed team, like doing the connections and the lifts make it really interesting.

When the Paris 2024 announcement about men being able to compete came: I was really excited. I’m excited to see how the sport’s evolving in that direction. Hopefully, in the next couple of years, we’ll see our sport progress to include the Mixed Duet at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. 

 

Instant Results

Stay up to date on the latest scores here.

https://www.worldaquatics.com/competitions/3295/world-aquatics-artistic-swimming-world-cup-2023-super-final/results?

No comments: