With the trend set by the
implementation of the new scoring system and many of the previous leg’s medal
winners not in attendance, there were several new faces occupying the three steps
of the podiums.
Mexico brought their country their
first-ever gold medal at a world-level artistic swimming event in the Mixed
Team Technical, while Chinese Shuncheng Yang topped the podium at his
international debut.
The third and final stop of the World
Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2023 season got off to a stellar start
today in Somabay, Egypt.
Unlike most competitions, in warm and
sunny Somabay, the event takes place in the outdoor facility of the
state-of-the-art Senzo Sporting Club Olympic Complex. After her gold medal performance, Austria’s
Vasiliki Alexandri shared:
“It’s nice swimming here, but a
little bit different than training as I train in an indoor pool. I felt the
wind a little bit, especially in the choreography in the middle part of the
routine. Still, it’s a nice feeling and it’s the same conditions for everyone.”
By Vasiliki Alexandri
Solo Technical Women
In a redemption from her Technical
routine in Montpellier, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri entered and finished the
competition with the highest difficulty score. Receiving 28.40 from the
Technical Controllers and a total of 263.8959 points for “The Road to Success”,
her own creation, Alexandri made her way to the top of the podium to receive
the gold medal. Alexandri has her sights set on defending her title at the
Super Final next month in Oviedo:
“Of course, I have to work on a lot
of things as we’ve just begun with the season. There’s work to be done, but I
am on a good way and I think – no, it can be – much better.”
By Vasiliki Alexandri
The silver medal went to Spain’s Iris
Tio Casa who received 262.9333 points for her routine “Fire” to Mahler’s
Symphonie Number 1 “Titan”. Tio Casa’s choreography used the music
exceptionally well, highlighting the ups and downs of the rhythm with her
movements through the water, keeping the audience mesmerized, and earning her
bonus points to increase her declared degree of difficulty to 28.10 points.
Tio Casa was pleased with her own
performance.
“I felt very good, very powerful. I
think everyone enjoyed my routine. I’m happy, especially with how I performed
the first element and the last figure- It makes me very happy and very proud of
my swimming.”
By Iris Tio Casa
Last year's bronze medal event winner
at the World Junior Artistic Swimming Championships, France’s Oriane Jaillardon
showed that she is ready to compete at the senior stage.
Jaillardon’s declared difficulty for
the routine“Madness” was 21.40, however, her on-point execution received
several bonus points for a final score of 234.6542 points which earned her the
bronze medal.
Solo Technical Men
First-time World Cup participant
Shuncheng Yang of China made an impressive debut on the International stage
with his routine swum to “The Cello Song” by The Piano Guys.
Yang declared and executed a
difficulty score of 27.0, considerably higher than the rest of the field, and
received 232.5792 points and the gold medal for his efforts.
Colombian Gustavo Sanchez was able to
execute his routine “The End of the World” on music from “Avengers” better than
in Montpellier and moved up one step on the podium to claim the silver medal
with 209.1375 points. Swimming to the song “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim
Petras, the gold medalist from Montpellier, Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto scored
208.0417 points to finish right behind Sanchez for the bronze medal.
Mixed Team Technical
In a very close race for the gold
medal, separated only by a little over one point, the only country representing
the American Continent, Mexico with “Don’t Stop me now”, came out on top to
occupy the top of the podium and claim the gold medal with 270.1584 points.
The silver medalists, Italy, received
the identical score for difficulty, but could not surpass Mexico’s Execution
and Artistic Impression scores, and settled for second place with 268.8417
points.
Team France, who entered the event
with the highest declared difficulty, 30.8, was unable to execute the “Trip to
Space” routine flawlessly and finished in third place for the bronze medal with
253.5312 points.
Although the team finished 6th in
Montpellier last week, their score then, 30.2 for difficulty and total score of
288.8396, would have been enough to win the event today.
What's Coming Up Next in Artistic
Swimming in Somabay
Follow the action in Somabay which
can be viewed live and all results will be on the World Aquatics website
Sunday, 14 May
9:30 EET Solo Free Women and Solo
Free Men
17:00 EET Duet Technical Women and
Mixed Duet Technical
19:45 EET Mixed Team Free
Monday, 15 May
17:00 EET Duet Free Women and Mixed
Duet Free
19:45 EET Acrobatic Routine and Gala
Written by Croes, World Aquatics
correspondent
Image Source: David Balogh/World
Aquatics
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