Written by:Maureen Croes, World
Aquatics correspondent
Image Source: Juan Manuel Serrano
Arce/Getty Images
The World Aquatics Artistic Swimming
World Cup 2023 Super Final wrapped up today in the popular northern Spanish
city of Oviedo The three-day event, held at the Piscinas Parque del Oeste, was
the final stop on the 2023 World Cup circuit as the World Aquatics
Championships - Fukuoka 2023 comes next in July.
If the results from Oviedo are any
indication, the World Aquatics Championships will be an exciting and
unpredictable competition. The nine medals that were up for grabs today were
won by athletes from seven countries.
In the past, this would be an unusual
occurrence, but it is likely that this will be the future of the sport. Only
Ukraine and Israel earned two medals each. While Spain tops the medal stand
with nine medals total, four gold, four silver, and one bronze. Today the host
nation added a lone silver to this medal collection.
Duet Free Woman
After opening the 2023 World Cup
season in Markham, Canada with a historic gold medal win in the Technical Duet
event, Israel’s Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee showed the world that it was
not a one-time occurrence.
The Israeli pair nailed the high
36.1000 declared difficulty in the “New
World” routine, choreographed to music prepared specially for this routine by
Arnau Vilà, to finish on the top of the podium for the gold medal with 225.7915
points.
This medal is also Israel’s second
gold in Oviedo. A very emotional Nasse shared “Yes, those were tears of joy.
Our motivation was up here, through the roof. Last week, we changed the
difficulty of our dance. Everything has been very intense; we were afraid to do
a base mark, but we managed to swim our routine clean and very well.”
Added duet partner Bobritsky “We saw
we could do it. So, this morning we woke up and said, “Okay, we can make it
twice,” you know? This was our motivation right up to this moment. We were
very, very focused. We knew we could win the gold. We are fighting for a medal,
so we brought everything we had into this moment. We were focused. We knew
exactly what we had to do. And we are very happy that we could make it.”
Ukrainian twin sisters Maryna and
Vladyslava Aleksiiva claimed Ukraine’s third medal, a silver with 217.1771
points. Throughout the weekend, the
Ukrainian athletes entered the events with very high difficulties, however,
they struggled with the execution of the routines.
Today, the duo entered with the
highest, 36.30, but received a base mark for one of the hybrids, to finish with
32.85 points. Their exceptional musical interpretation and artistry of
“Scramble to Position” produced a strong enough artistic impression score to
make it onto the podium and own the second spot.
The sisters were pleased with their
performance, Vladyslava said “This was the most difficult routine we have ever
done. Maryna added, “We have seven hybrids in the duet free, there’s so many
rotations, thrusts, spins. You feel like you’re in an underwater disco.”
Vladyslava Aleksiiva opened up on the
base mark score: “We know we picked up one base mark during one of our hybrids,
but our coach says this was our best-ever performance. If she’s happy, we’re
happy. When your coach tells you that you’ve done everything that you can, you
can only be happy about it.”
The first medal for the Netherlands
in Oviedo came from duo Bregje de Brouwer and Marloes Steenbeek. The Dutch performed their terror fantasy
routine “Werewolves” to music which was composed specially by Alexis Maldiney
to fit this routine. The fabulous interpretation of the strong theme throughout
the choreography earned the declared difficulty of 32.45, which is also a
personal best for the duo. With a total of 214.3355 points, de Brouwer and
Steenbeek won the bronze medal.
Mixed Duet Free
Last year's World Aquatics Champion
Haoyu Shi paired up with her Chinese teammate
Wentao Cheng and presented the brand-new routine “Romeo and
Juliet.” The Chinese duo, winners of the
Technical events in Markham and Montpellier, performed the difficult, 35.20,
yet beautifully choreographed love story to music by composer Michael Bruce
from the original soundtrack “Romeo and Juliet”. As the only pair to execute
each component of their routine’s declared difficulty, Cheng and Shi, who were
awarded 226.3228 points and claimed China’s first medal in Oviedo, expressed
their delight about their performance:
CHENG: “Our execution in today’s
competition was our best. Actually, our entire performance was our best ever.”
SHI: “We’re so excited and enjoyed
this competition. You’ll see us in Fukuoka, definitely.”
The silver medal with 204.3894
points was earned by the Spanish mixed
duo Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Mireia Hernandez Luna. Although their routine
“Angels and Demons”, swum to music by Hans Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith has
been presented at all three stops of the ASWC series, Gonzalez Boneu and
Hernandez Luna have not performed the routine in competition as a pair.
Prior to injuring his foot, Gonzalez
Boneu won the gold medal in Markham with his 2022 Junior World Champion partner
Maria Bofill Strub. Hernandez Luna swam the routine with Diaz del Rio Soto in
Montpellier and Somabay, winning silver and gold respectively.
Hernandez Luna commented on the
changes the pair made to the routine for the Super Final, which successfully
resulted in their highest difficulty yet, 31.5000 points.
“We’re satisfied, she said, “We took
on the difficult task to change our routine and add in new parts and elements.
We had to improve to achieve higher scores. We’re happy with where we are, but
we have to keep trying to achieve the goal, to go to the World Championships
and get a medal. That’s our goal.”
Winning Colombia’s fourth medal, the
second bronze, in the Super Final, Jennifer Cerquera Hatiusca and Gustavo
Sanchez, received 179.1333 points for their rendition of the choreography
themed “The King and Queen” swum to the song “Tension” by Daniel Garuglieri.
The pair steadily improved their
difficulty scores from Montpellier and Somabay and scored 25.0500 today.
Satisfied about the progress in the difficulty scores, Cerquera Hatiusca said,
“This feels so good. We’ve competed so much this week. We feel the fatigue, but
we fight through the tiredness, and I think we did well. We can achieve higher
scores – we can add in more difficulty, and we had one base mark on our routine
today. We’ll try and get better for the World Championships.”
Sanchez, with one silver and three
bronze to his name, on the demands of being an Artistic Swimming athlete:
“From the solos to the duets, I’ve
competed so much here at the Super Final. I’m so tired now, but it’s all good.
Maybe it’s because we smile throughout the entire routine, it looks easy. It’s
not easy – not at all. And as we add more and more difficulty into the sport
and our routines, the physical demands really increase.”
Acrobatic Routine
The final event of the Super Final,
as well as the competitive closure of the 2023 Artistic Swimming World Cup
series was the always spectacular and breathtaking Acrobatic event.
Team Ukraine stunned the audience
with “Love to Smile”, choreography swum to a compilation of very upbeat happy
music which was delightful to watch, leaving everyone feeling good.
Saving the best for last, the winners
from Markham and Montpellier started the artistically, musically, and
acrobatically well-balanced routine with an impressive one-handed handstand
which set the tone for the rest of the performance for which they received the
declared 19.75 and a total of 216.6701 points to claim the last gold medal
available in Oviedo.
Sharing the excitement of this win
was Valeriya Tyshchenko.
“We feel really excited now. We had a
lot of hope we could perform at our best and we did it," Tyshchenko said.
"Having these gold medals confirms this sense. We really like this
routine. It’s one of our all-time favourite routines, which you can hear in the
routine’s name: It’s Time to Smile.
"Every time when we do this
routine, we’re smiling. It has good music and we’re always in a good mood when
we perform it," Tyshchenko added. "We like to do a dynamic routine
with lifts. Of course, to do a good acrobatic it’s something you have to train
and train a lot. Again, and again and again we’re working to get this kind of
outcome.”
With a score of 197.1600 points,
Canada added a silver to the three bronze medals already won in the 2023 Super
Final. The Canadians’ choreography was very creative and showcased great musical
interpretation of the collection of Hip Hop songs.
Throughout the routine, the team was
able to execute all requirements, but, noteworthy, was the original spinning
platform at the start of their performance.
Closing out a successful event for
their country, the team representing Israel performed the routine “Dream”
beautifully and received their best difficulty score to date, a 17.25. With a
total of 191.6033 points, a bronze medal was added to the Israeli collection in
Oviedo.
Free Duet gold medalists Ariel Nassee
and Shelly Bobritsky on the Acrobatic routine:
Nassee: “I think acrobatic is our
favourite routine. It combines so many different things and parts of our sport.
You have the artistic elements mixed with the acrobatic elements. We have to play with the music. Our acrobatic
routine is about dreams and we really to make our choreography by this theme.”
Bobritsky: “The responsibility is
much greater now on the lifting. If you don’t do the lifts, your difficulty
degree falls greatly. We’re happy with all our lifts and with today’s energy,
we brought very high energy today.”
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