The best Artistic Swimming athletes
are in Oviedo, Spain for the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2023 -
Super Final. The three-day competition starts on Friday and runs through Sunday
(2-4 June).
The competition features athletes
from National Federations that achieved a top-twelve cumulative ranking in the
eleven events contested across the three World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World
Cup stops of 2023 - Markham, Canada;
Montpellier, France, and Somabay, Egypt.
A popular tourist destination, Oviedo
is the capital city of Asturias in northern Spain. A historic city with a rich
cultural heritage, lively and vibrant Oviedo is home to historical monuments and
several theatres, cinemas, and concert halls. The Super Final, which will be
held at the Piscinas Parque del Oeste, is the final stop on the World Cup
circuit and will serve as a major test for the athletes ahead of the World
Aquatics Championships - Fukuoka 2023.
Fukuoka's second edition of hosting
the world championships runs from 14-31 July. Oviedo is the final chance for
athletes to show their form and routines before the big show.
Twenty-two National Federations are
slated to compete in the eleven events scheduled for the three-day competition.
The field of participants is loaded with medal winners from the first three
World Cup series, forecasting an exciting competition, especially with the new
scoring system which has changed the sport’s future.
In the Female Solo events, the
reigning World Champion and winner of three gold and one silver medal in the
2023 series, Japan’s Yukiko Inui, is
joined by the silver medalist of the 2022 Budapest World Championships,
Ukraine’s Marta Fiedina, who took home one gold from Markham and one silver
medal from Montpellier.
The pair is joined by several other
World Cup medalists, Spain’s Iris Tio Casa, Canada’s Audrey Lamothe, Slovakia’s
Viktoria Reichova, France’s Oriane Jaillardon,
and Germany’s Marlene Bojer. Surprisingly, the 2022 Super Final Champion in
the both the Female Solo events, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri is missing from
the lineup.
This World Cup series’ most
successful male athletes will be competing in the Solo events. Spain’s Fernando
Diaz del Rio Soto, winner of one gold, two silver and two bronze medals thus
far and also the reigning Super Final Champion in both the Solo events, will
once again face Colombia’s Gustavo Sanchez and Kazakhstan’s Eduard Kim. Sanchez
has claimed two silver and two bronze medals, while Kim has claimed two silver
and 1 bronze medal in the previous stops.
The Female Duet events may once again
provide surprising results with China, Japan and Austria absent from the
lineup, the competition is expected to require perfect execution of the
declared degrees of difficulty to claim the podium spots.
The 2022 World Championships silver
medalists, Ukrainians Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva, as well as the 2022
Super Final silver medalists, Dutch duet Bregje de Brouwer and Marloes Steenbeek
are joined by the Israeli duo, who brought Markham to its feet in March, Shelly
Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee.
Other 2023 World Cup medal winners
competing this weekend are France’s Anastasia Bayandina and Eve Planeix,
Spain’s Iris Tio Casa and Alisa Ozhogina Ozhogin, and Great Britain’s Kate
Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe.
Although the entries for the Mixed
Duet events include a few regularly paired duo’s from this season, Spain, who
has been on the podium in five of the six Mixed Duet events this year, will be
competing with different pairings of their athletes. Last year’s Super Final
Champion in both the Technical and the Free routine, Spain’s Emma Garcia then
paired with retired Pau Ribes, is
scheduled to compete in only the Technical event with Dennis Gonzalez Boneu.
Garcia’s partner at all three stops
this season was Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto, who is listed as the reserve in
both events. Gonzalez Boneu, winner of a gold and a silver medal in Markham
with, will pair with Mireia Hernandez Luna in the Free event. The 2022 Budapest
World Championship Bronze medalists, Chinese duo Haoyu Shi and Yiyao Zhang won
the gold medal in the technical event in Montpellier, while Shi paired with
Wentao Cheng accomplished the same feat in Markham.
Although both medals were won in the
Technical event, the Chinese are scheduled to compete only in the Free in
Oviedo. Other World Cup medal winners aiming for the podium include seasoned
Colombians, Jennifer Cerquera Hatiusca and Gustavo Sanchez, Kazakhstan’s Nargiza
Bolatova and Eduard Kim and Belgium’s Renaud Barral and Lisa Ingenito.
The number of countries in the Team
events may be on the lower side, however, the presence of powerhouses China and
Ukraine, besides Canada, Spain, France, Israel, and Kazakhstan guarantees a
competitive event with spectacular routines showcasing the athleticism and
grace of the athletes.
The 3-Day Event Rundown
Live results will be available on the
World Aquatics website for this weekend’s competition in Oviedo, Spain.
Friday, 2 June
11:00 Women and Men Solo Technical
17:00 Mixed Team Technical
19:30 Mixed Duet Technical
Saturday, 3 June
11:00 Women and Men Solo Free
16:30 Women Duet Technical
19:00 Mixed Team Free
Sunday, 4 June
11:00 Women Duet Free and Mixed Duet
Free
17:00 Acrobatic
Written by Maureen Croes, World
Aquatics correspondent
Image Source: Luiza Moraes/World
Aquatics
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