Written by Zhou Xin, World Aquatics
Correspondent
Kazakhstan, Italy and Israel each
secured one gold medal on the third and last day of the World Aquatics Artistic
Swimming World Cup 2024 in Beijing here on Sunday as the hosts team China
dominated the medal table with six golds and three silvers out of the 11 events
on offer.
Italy earned two golds and a bronze
while teams Spain collected one gold, three silvers, and two bronzes on the
medal table for the opening World Cup leg in the Chinese capital.
Women's Duet Free
Among the 10 pairs of participants,
Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee from Israel received all the difficulty
approved and the highest scores of 225.7613 points. Xu Huiyan, a triple winner
in the Beijing leg, had to concede to silver medals with Lin Yanhan, the younger
twin sisters of Lin Yanjun, in a total of 221.0156.
"My schedule is very busy this
time and I am really exhausted today. All the mistakes I made were because of
lack of power and energy," Xu collected victories in the Solo Tech and
Solo Free as well as in Team Tech in the last two days.
Lin Yanhan and her elder twin sister
Lin Yanjun won the Women's Duet Tech on Saturday. "Xu and I trained
together for nearly one month. Xu is a better and stronger swimmer than I am. I
need to work harder on my quality of leg and foot movements," said Lin
Yanhan.
Mexican pair Daniela Avila Villa and
Fernanda Carmona Vazquez celebrated their bronze medals in 201.8510. Rocio
Calle Garcia and Cui Xu Isabel Shuang from Spain came fourth at 178.9322.
"We have been worked together
for 4 days! Isabel lives in Barcelona and I live in Madrid. Four days to train
together and that was the time we had. We did as much as possible. We also got
to know each other during our team routines these days and we are close friends
now," Calle Garcia said.
Mixed Duet Free
Filippo Pelati and Flaminia Vernice
told an ancient Greek mythology Orpheus and Eurydice by winning the second
victory for Italy in 175.9655. Pelati clinched its first gold in Men's Solo
Free on Saturday.
Viktor Druzin and Amma Pavletsova of
Kazakhstan took the silvers 172.4399 and Jordi Caceres Iglesias and Judith
Calvo Requena of Spain third 151.5945.
Both at the age of 15, Guo Muxi and
Guo Jiayu were the youngest pair in the event and finished fourth with their
performance Up is Down.
"We executed better than our
training form but we still have a long way to catch up with the top senior
swimmers. I gave myself 7.5 points out of 10 because I realized my weakness. I
was not physically strong enough and could not do some high difficult
movements. I felt more nervous to compete myself than watching my twin brother
Muye competing," Guo Muxi said.
Born and raised in Beijing in the
year of 2008 Olympic Games, the native Beijing twin brothers started swimming
at the Water Cube and always had a special feeling for this place.
"We are familiar with the Water
Cube pool very much and have trained and competed many times here. It is like
going home. But competing in a World Cup made me different and nervous,"
Muxi added.
Guo Jiayu awarded herself 8 points
for her brave heart. “I did not feel nervous at all. I knew we were lack of
power, difficulty and artistic elements compared with others. But right now I
am more clear-minded than before what we should improve in the future,” said
Guo.
Team Acrobatic
With the music of Night on Bald
Mountain, team Kazakhstan showed their charming ballet in the pool, winning
their first gold medal at the opening leg of the World Cup with 213.7801.
"We like the plot and music of
the movie very much. We are happy with our performance and the gold
medal," Eteri Kakutia smiled.
The second-tire national team of
China pretended they were the Eagles flying up and down to the water, coming to
the second place in 205.0300 while Australia bagged bronze medals with their
Clear-leading performance.
"As the young artistic swimmers,
we demonstrated our strength at the World Cup. We learned a lot but also made
some mistakes. I believe it is valuable experience to compete in the high-level
events, which can inspire us to make progress step by step," said Chinese
swimmer Wu Jingyan.
For the Australians, they enjoyed the
competition at the venue of 2008 Olympic Games and took the World Cups as
preparation for the coming Paris Olympic Games.
"We all love the Water Cube and
the pool. It would be a great experience for us in preparation for the Paris
Olympics by competing the World Cups. We have been trained very hard since last
year and looked forward competing in the next stop of World Cup in Paris,"
Kiera Walsh Gazzard said.
With Beijing World Cup Leg Down,
Here's What's to Come Later This Year
The World Aquatics Artistic Swimming
World Cup 2024 series has four legs, including Beijing, Paris (FRA) – 3-5 May,
Markham (CAN) – 31 May - 2 June and Super Final in Budapest (HUN) – 5-7 July.
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