Written by:Maureen Croes, World
Aquatics correspondent
Image Source: Koki Nagahama/Getty
Images (file photo)
The Chinese anthem sounded twice
today during the Artistic Swimming World Cup portion of the Egypt Aquatics
Festival at the Senzo Mall Sporting Club Olympic Complex in Somabay, the
beautiful destination located on the eastern shores of Egypt.
Both the Chinese female and male
soloists, Dai Shiyi and Yang Shuncheng, who are competing for the first time as
Soloists, demonstrated that they are ready and have what it takes for the elite
Artistic Swimming level, each executing their declared difficulties
impressively well for even a seasoned competitor.
Solo Free Women
Making an impressive debut as a Solo
Swimmer in Somabay is China’s Dai Shiyi
Executing almost perfectly her very difficult routine, Dai received
33.80 points from the Technical Controllers, more than eight points ahead of
the rest of the field. With a total of 338.2750 points, Dai deservingly
received her first gold medal as a Solist.
“Today, I felt my performance was at
my best. The intensity of this routine is higher than before. I need to be very
powerful and very strong to control and manage this routine”, Dai shared about
her performance, then explained how the theme “The Ballad of Mulan”, a
historical Chinese folksong about a Chinese girl who goes to war instead of her
father influences her, “I felt the theme of this routine swimming today. It’s a
historical story about China. When I swim it well, I feel its powerful for
people.”
The silver medal with a total of
299.8084 points was awarded to Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri for her routine
“Sound of Nature”. Vasiliki, receiving 24.9 for a difficulty score, was unable
to execute the full degree of difficulty she declared, compared to last week in
Montpellier where she received 27.95. Vasiliki explained the importance of
these competitions en route to the World Championships in Fukuoka:
“With the new rules and the
underwater twists, if you are just a few degrees away from completing the move,
that’s a penalty. In the outdoor pool, it is much more difficult to know if
you’ve completely completed the twist. But we take this, we learn from the
mistakes from here and don’t let it happen again at a bigger event like the
World Championships. From here to Fukuoka, I will work a lot on my execution,
to better in this regard as well as being higher and more explosive. You know,
those details, those last details.”
"we learn from the mistakes from
here and don’t let it happen again at a bigger event like the World
Championships."
By Vasiliki Alexandri
Germany’s Marlene Bojer finished on
the podium for the bronze medal with a score of 289.8542. Bojer was pleased with
her performance, swimming to the song” I Did Something Bad” by Cynthia Erivo
and Shoshana Bean, compared to last week’s when she received 230.2999 points.
“I’m happy with how I came back from
yesterday. After that performance, I was quite disappointed, especially because
I got a (base) mark on my last hybrid. I did a huge mistake, and I was so sad
about that. To come back and do the routine like I did today, I’m very proud.
It took a lot of mental fortitude to come back and swim like I did today.”
Boyer also noted a change in strategy
to today's performance. “Last week in Montpellier, I competed with another
routine," the 30-year-old German said.
"Now, I’ve pushed the difficulty of this competition much higher to
be competitive. It worked. I’m happy."
"I’m very proud. It took a lot
of mental fortitude to come back and swim like I did today."
By Marlene Bojer
Solo Free Men
The Men’s Solo Free podium
represented a repeat of yesterday’s Technical event. China’s Yang Shuncheng
topped the podium as he continued to impress the judges and the audience with
his performance of the technically very difficult routine “Warriors of the
Night“ for which he was awarded the gold medal with 28.0500 points for
difficulty and a total of 291.9209 points.
Today’s silver and bronze medalist
expressed their thoughts on Yang’s arrival and performance, which has not gone
unnoticed.
“It’s the first time I see him. He’s
so good, man," said Gustavo Sanchez of Colombia. "He has so much
difficulty in his solo.”
Added Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto of
Spain: “Having new men’s performers encourages me to improve.”
Gustavo Sanchez‘s performance showed
a huge improvement from last week. Receiving a very low 6.9500 difficulty score
in Montpellier, today Sanchez executed the declared difficulty much better and
received 20.6500 for his routine “The Passion of Christ”.
The Colombian’s total of 248.5709
points put him solidly in second place to receive his second silver medal in
Egypt. Sanchez, who has been on the podium in every event he competed in
Montpellier and thus far in Somabay, explained the importance of attending
World Cup events:
“The World Cups are for seeing my
competition, seeing what they are doing and where I can be better. I feel I can
do better in the future, but it’s quite good for now.”
By Gustavo Sanchez
Like Sanchez, today’s winner of the
bronze medal representing Spain, Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto, was able to
improve the execution of his declared difficulty compared to last week,
improving his difficulty score from 13.1000 to 18.1500.
Diaz del Rio Soto earned 235.4291
points for the choreography themed “Elements, Water, Air, and Fire.”
I’m satisfied with today, it’s one of
my better scores. I’m proud of my performance,” del Rio Soto shared about his
performance. “I improved most in the artistic. I used to always look down at
the water. Now I really pay attention to look up and smile.”
Duet Technical Women
The Duet events in Somabay were set
to see new names on the podium for the 2023 World Cup series. Improving
considerably from Montpellier, Spain’s Iris Tio Casa and Alisa Ozhogina Ozhogin
swam their “Let's play Baseball” routine to the song “Proud Mary” by Ike and
Tina Turner and received 261.8625 points. The Spanish duo won their first medal
this season, the gold with the highest difficulty score, 29.60, in today’s
competition.
France claimed the silver medal with
the duet from Anastasia Bayandina and Eve Planeix. The French pair improved their score from a
week ago to 250.2334 points for their choreography called “Nature”, which was
swum to "Prologue" – the song played during the flag exchange between
Tokyo and Paris at the end of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The Dutch duet of Bregje de Brouwer
and Marloes Steenbeek performed their “Disco Vibe” to the eighties song
"Far From Over" by Frank Stallone. The pair jumped on the bottom step
of the podium to take the bronze medal with 249.7043 points.
Mixed Duet Technical
Third time was the charm today for
the Spanish Mixed duo Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto and Emma Garcia, who have
participated in each of the three World Cup series this season and finally made
it onto the podium, all the way to the top for the gold medal. Their execution
of the routine themed “The Four Seasons” saw a six-point increase in the earned
difficulty score from the previous events and added to the pairs finals score
of 244.8500 points.
Kazakhstan’s Eduard Kim paired with Nargiza
Bolatova to 229.1042 points and add a
silver medal to the bronze they won earlier in Markham, Canada.
Despite a penalty, Colombians Gustavo
Sanchez and Jennifer Cerquera Hatiusca were able to deliver their “The Mystery
of the Ocean” choreography solidly enough to score 212.2958 points and claim
another bronze medal in this event, their fifth medal this 2023 season.
Mixed Team Free
Italy might have scored less points
than last week in Montpellier where they won the bronze medal in this event,
but the Italians were able to hold on and claim the gold medal with 310.9160
points.
The silver medal was awarded to
hometown favourite Egypt. The Egyptians, with all the support from the crowd,
performed their “Catching” routine solidly to receive 285.0397 points.
Winning their first medal this season
in a Team event, Kazakhstan scored 277.3750 points for the bronze medal.
Coming Up | The Final Day of Artistic
Swimming Action from Somabay
Tune in for the final day of the
final stop prior to the Super Final in Oviedo. The action can be viewed live
and all results will be on the World Aquatics website
Monday, 15 May
17:00 EET Duet Free Women and Mixed
Duet Free
19:45 EET Acrobatic Routine and Gala
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