On the fourth day of the European Artistic
Swimming Championships, Anna-Maria and Eirini Marina Alexandri of Austria
claimed the Duet Free gold, their second gold at these European Championships,
and thus secured their country a quota spot in the Duet event at the 2024
Olympic Games.
The day was also marked by France
winning its first European team gold in 34 years in the Team Acrobatic Routine,
and Spain upsetting the reigning World Champions in the Mixed Duet Free to
clinch its first-ever gold in the event.
DUET FREE FINAL
The Duet Free final was undoubtedly
the most anticipated event of the day, if not the entire championships. Indeed
at the conclusion of the event, the top pair with the highest combined Duet
Technical and Duet Free score would earn a place to the 2024 Olympic Games.
The top 12 duets from Wednesday’s
preliminary competition had qualified to this final, but the scores did not
carry over.
Anna-Maria and Eirini Marina
Alexandri of Austria came in as the favorites after winning the Duet Technical
event on Thursday, and qualifying in first place after a very strong
performance in the Duet Free Preliminary.
In tonight’s final, the triplet
sisters were once again undeniable, perfectly and precisely executing the most
difficult routine of the field. With a 40.44 Degree of Difficulty (DD) and a
total score of 256.0335 for their “Condor” routine, they became European
Champions again and punched their tickets to Paris.
Certainly relieved to have secured a
spot for Austria at the next Olympics, which would also be their third, the Alexandri
sisters will undoubtedly now aim to be at the top of the podium again next
month at the World Aquatics Championships.
Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva of
Ukraine, the defending European champions, had qualified in second place to
this final. Once more, they successfully performed their “Scramble to Position”
routine to secure silver with a score of 232.8438.
The twins earned the best artistic
impression score of the evening, but couldn’t compete with the Austrians in
terms of difficulty, going for the third-highest DD of the field with 35.70.
Nonetheless, they were absolutely thrilled to win Ukraine’s second silver medal
at these European Championships, and are motivated to finish the competition
strong tomorrow in the Team Free final.
Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe of
Great Britain earned the bronze with 223.5084 for their “Rising Phoenix”
routine. The two, who have been swimming together since they were 10, had
actually qualified to the final in fifth place after receiving one base mark in
the preliminary round.
In the final, they improved
tremendously and were credited their full DD of 34.5, bringing Great Britain
its second artistic swimming bronze medal of the championships. Moreover, the
last time the nation had won a medal in the women’s duet event was in 1993,
which was coincidentally a competition where both of their mothers competed in
as well.
The three medallists were the only
ones to not record any base marks in their routines in this final. Italy,
silver medallists in Roma 2022, placed eighth after receiving four base marks.
QUOTES
GOLD – Austria – Anna-Maria
Alexandri, Eirini Marina Alexandri – 255.9501
Anna-Maria Alexandri: “We are
extremely happy and relieved. We achieved our dream, won the gold and qualified
for the Olympics. We can’t really describe our feelings now… This is so great.
We’ve been working for this so hard and focused on every single moment in all
our practices, we really gave everything. Today was a bit stressful before the
competition, unlike in the prelims which was more like training.”
Eirini Marina Alexandri: “For me it
was just the opposite, today like a training and I felt more stress on the
opening day. We cannot tell which routine we did better, this one or the
previous one as we need to rewatch the video. That helps a lot – honestly,
sometimes it feels worse in the pool than the performance was in reality.”
“Our sister Vasiliki is at home, she
got injured during our training camp in Turkey, she is checked by the doctors
and hopes to be ready for the Worlds. We called her today just as on all other
days, right after our routine, to check how it went. First, we talk with our
coaches, then with her. If she says it was OK, then we can be happy that it
really went well.”
SILVER – Ukraine – Maryna Aleksiiva,
Vladyslava Aleksiiva – 232.8438
Maryna Aleksiiva: “We are happy with
the second place, we didn’t have any base marks so this is great.
Competing and winning medals are
important for us as we know what our country is going through. Many athletes
are on the battlefield, many died, so if there is a chance to participate and
show our strength, then it is our duty to do everything we could for our
country.”
Vladyslava Aleksiiva: “Last year,
after the war broke out, we trained in Italy. It was hard, far from our family,
parents and relatives. We were thankful for everyone who helped us. Then we
decided to go back to Ukraine and train in Kyiv. We are from Kharkiv, but
that’s too close to the border and half of our pool was destroyed, but at least
in Kyiv we are together with our family, even if sometimes it’s tough to
practice there during these months.”
“Well, last year we won six gold
medals at the European Championships but those came under the old rules. We
basically learned the real importance of base marks with the new rules two
months ago when we went to Canada for the World Cup. Until then, we didn’t
really devote too much attention to these changes. We prepared in our usual
way, with nice choreography, where the artistic part is as important as the
difficulty. Then we learned this whole new system, but two months were not
enough to adapt to it completely. Our coaches are a bit sad, telling where the
artistic part will go, the overall impression, the harmony with the music… But
now, we have a specialist who is doing the counting, so we’ll be much more
adapted next time.”
BRONZE – Great Britain – Kate
Shortman, Isabelle Thorpe – 223.5084
Kate Shortman: “We’ve been quite
close for a couple of times so making a medal place is awesome.
We’ve accomplished a big goal here.
We also feel honoured to sit alongside all these great athletes.
Well, we are competing with twins but
sometimes we are asked if we are sisters. Obviously we’ve grown up together,
known each other since the age of five, we spent so much time together that we
can say we’ve merged into sisters in a way.”
Isabelle Thorpe: “I think it’s been
30 years since Great Britain won a medal at a European Championship, so this is
just amazing.”
TEAM ACROBATIC ROUTINE FINAL
In the morning, seven countries
participated in the Team Acrobatic Routine final, an event recently added to
the Olympic Games programme ahead of Paris 2024. Unlike every other routine,
only the acrobatics count towards the total Degree of Difficulty.
In Oświęcim, the three medallists
from Roma 2022 were back on the podium, albeit in a different order.
This time, France became European
Champion with its “Zombies” routine and a score of 214.2833. The French
undoubtedly had one of their best swims of the year and were finally credited
their full DD of 18.65 for the first time. They were the European bronze
medallists in 2022 in this event, but this marks the country’s first gold medal
as a team since 1989.
The defending European Champions of
Ukraine also had one of their better performances of the year in terms of
overall execution, but unfortunately received a base mark on their second
acrobatic as the flier didn’t complete the jump as intended. The Ukrainians
settled for silver with 208.9800 to win what was then their first medal of
these championships with their “It’s Time to Smile” choreography.
Italy earned the bronze medal with
201.9900, also with one base mark. Unlike France and Ukraine, the Italians had
not competed in this event yet this season. They were nonetheless confident
with this “Dragons” choreography as it earned them bronze in the 2022 World
Championships and silver in the 2022 European Championships. Giorgio Minisini,
a staple of the Mixed Duet events over the years and reigning World and
European Champion, won his first international team medal.
QUOTES
GOLD – France – 214.2833
Claudia Janvier: “We were surprised
too to win this gold medal. It’s great for France, great for the team. We are
working so hard and it’s so great to see the hard work pay off. It’s also great to have our supporters
around, they are loud, they are cheering – we just feel the energy coming from
the stands.”
SILVER – Ukraine –
208.9800
Marta Fiedina: “This medal means a
lot to us. In the end, we are happy with the score, it’s cool to have a silver
at the Europeans. Of course, we need to work on correcting our mistakes as we
had a base mark today as well. This is bad and that part also makes other teams
upset. Though I would say that the new system has its advantages. It’s great
that today you are first but tomorrow you can finish last. This is good for the
sport, for the audience, as artistic swimming is getting really exciting.”
“We try to keep our focus on the
competition, but of course we are exchanging messages with our relatives at
home. For example, we know that it’s really hot these days back home, but they
don’t have air conditioning and electricity. But my parents tell me, don’t worry,
we are OK, you just concentrate on your competition.”
BRONZE – Italy – 201.9900
Enrica Piccoli: “We are not
completely satisfied with our score but now we have a new goal to correct our
mistakes for the World Championships. To have Giorgio [Minisini] is an
advantage and we are really happy that he is now part of the team. France did
such a great job today. The order is fair, this is the new era, if you make a
mistake, you go down. Now, the sport is a lot more exciting for the fans, we
just need to adapt as maybe this is the right way for our sport.”
MIXED DUET FREE FINAL
The day concluded in dramatic fashion
with the Mixed Duet Free Final. In their very first European Championships
together, Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Mireia Hernandez Luna of Spain upset the
reigning World and European Champions of Italy to win the gold.
The Spaniards scored 210.3918 for
their “Angels and Demons” routine to bring Spain the second gold medal.
Gonzalez Boneu had already won silver a few days ago in the Mixed Duet
Technical alongside Emma Garcia Garcia.
He and Hernandez Luna only started
training together at the beginning of the season, but competed in a few World
Aquatics World Cups to test out their routine. That experience undoubtedly
helped them as they clearly handled the pressure beautifully to deliver a clean
performance when it counted. This is Spain’s first title in the Mixed Duet at a
senior European Championships.
Naturally, Giorgio Minisini and
Lucrezia Ruggiero were visibly disappointed upon seeing their score of
171.9874, which included two base marks. The Italians were showing their new
choreography for the first time, set to the theme of “Love Story Between Man
and an Artificial Intelligence.” They did receive the highest artistic
impression score of the field.
After earning bronze in the Mixed
Duet Technical, Beatrice Crass and Ranjuo Tomblin of Great Britain added
another bronze to their medal haul. They successfully executed their “Alice in
Wonderland” routine, scoring 163.9688 with no base marks.
QUOTES
GOLD – Spain – Dennis Gonzalez Boneu,
Mireia Hernandez Luna – 210.3918
Dennis Gonzalez Boneu: “I’ve fought a
lot to achieve this medal and I’m so happy to get it. This is my first year in
the senior team and the first year that we are swimming together, so this is
amazing to have a gold.”
Mireia Hernandez Luna: “This is also
my first year to do the mixed duet. It’s an honour to do this, I’m happy and
grateful to our coaches. We are overjoyed as we’ve reached our goals here and
achieved a big success.”
SILVER – Italy – Giorgio Minisini,
Lucrezia Ruggiero – 171.9874
Giorgio Minisini: “(Not having
guaranteed gold medals) is good for the sport. We woke up this morning and
talked about how no event so far had the same winner, until the Austrian girls
finished first in the duet just before our final. Putting our disappointment
aside, this is really good as synchro had that problem for long years that
there wasn’t competition at all. Now we have competition and there you can win
and you can lose. Now we have a silver medal and it’s still a silver for our
country. As for the base marks, we also tried to figure out which part was not
fine, and we know that we can do better for the Worlds.”
“I’m also going to take full
responsibility for what happened here as I think I wasn’t that supportive to
Lucrezia as I should have been. I have my problems, but those shouldn’t come to
the water. Anyway, sometimes you need to hit the bottom in order to push
yourself up again. Now we are at the bottom, but it’s still a silver medal, so
it’s a nice bottom after all.”
Lucrezia Ruggiero: “I’m not used to
being like this (tears)… But this was a busy year both physically and mentally,
and it was today that we might have finally understood that something went
wrong this year. We saw that we just didn’t tell each other that, Giorgio we
cannot go on like this. We’ve been working together for years, and we won a
lot, so it’s OK after all that something like this happened to us here. And we
still won the silver medal, so not zeroed out or finished last. We need to
change something, that’s for sure… Sorry, I’m a bit emotional now. Just two
hours earlier, I was in the duet which received four base marks, now we got
two. So it’s not easy. This may be a new record… (Giorgio, amid laughter: “You
should receive a trophy for that!”)
“Also, I’m really happy for Spain, as
I know how much a gold medal helps you to train even more and be determined.
And this is sport, one time me, one time you, well, it’s not nice if it’s not
me but we can deal with this.”
BRONZE – Great Britain – Beatrice
Crass, Ranjuo Tomblin – 163.9688
Beatrice Crass: “We’re both very
excited to win another medal here. Artistic swimming isn’t as big as the other
sports in Great Britain and our result shows our country that this is a sport
where we can develop. And this medal is also a good message that not just
females can be successful here. This podium is also great as this shows that we
can achieve our dreams.”
Ranjuo Tomblin: “This is a huge step
from the junior level, as this is my first year among the seniors. We are very
proud of this medal and all the hard work we’ve done so far. This is definitely
a good first step upon our senior debut.”
The artistic swimming competition at
the III European Games concludes tomorrow at 10:00 with the Team Free Final.
Artistic Swimming photos: Aniko
Kovacs/LEN
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