today in the historic capital city of
Asturias in northern Spain, Oviedo. The Spanish supporters filled the stands at
the Piscinas Parque del Oeste, and celebrated from start to finish, as they
witnessed the Spanish athletes win three of the four events on the program
Gold medals were won by Soloist
Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto, Mixed Duet Emma Garcia and Dennis Gonzalez Boneu,
and the Technical Team, while Soloist Iris Tio Casa brought Spain their fourth
medal on the first day, a silver.
SOLO TECHNICAL WOMEN
Japan’s Yukiko Inui, leading the Solo
events scoreboard this Artistic Swimming World Cup series, continued dominating
with another spectacular performance of her solo “The life of a droplet”. Inui,
who started the competition with the highest declared degree of difficulty,
31.55, perfectly executed the required elements and very difficult hybrids for
which she was awarded 268.4217 total points and the gold medal.
The reigning World Champion Inui
expressed her happiness with today’s performance and that she is looking
forward to making her goal, to be on the podium in every event this July in
Fukuoka, a reality:
“I’m just so happy with how I
performed. I did each part exactly how I’d planned, especially the hybrids.
Now, I’m very much looking forward to Fukuoka and competing there.”
In a very close race between Spain’s
Iris Tio Casa and Canada’s Audrey Lamothe, it was Tio Casa who claimed the
silver medal with 239.9299 points, less then half a point ahead of
Lamothe. Interestingly, Tio Casa’s choreography
“Fire” swum to Mahler’s Symphonie Number 1 “Titan” increased in declared degree
of difficulty compared to Somabay, 31.35 compared to 26.85. However, Tio Casa’s
execution of the higher degree of difficulty did not improve the 262.9333
points she received in Somabay.
Swimming in front of her home crowd,
Tio Casa’s said “It was very special to compete here. You could feel the warmth
from the crowd. This gave me a great energy to perform”. “Having the
opportunity to compete here before the world championships is ideal. I’ll keep
the same routine for Fukuoka, but maybe I will do it better,” Tio Casa added.
Receiving the bronze medal for her
performance of “Love Story”, Lamothe showed a steady increase throughout this
2023 World Cup series in her degree of difficulty and final scores of the
routine, 21.3 and 196.2833 in Markham, 23.70 and 219.7250 in Montpellier, and
28.2 and 239.5017 today in Oviedo.
Expressing her excitement about
making her debut at a Super Final, the eighteen-year-old Lamothe said: “I’m
super excited to qualify and compete at my first Super Final. Making it here
was for sure one of my goals for the year. I think this medal is just a result
of all the work and all my effort from the past years coming together. I really
think this came down to every day getting the maximum I can out of myself,
getting better day by day.”
SOLO TECHNICAL MEN
During the 2023 World Cup season,
Spain, with participation of Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto and Dennis Gonzalez
Boneu, made it onto the podium in each of the male Solo events contested.
In the Technical event, reigning
Super Final Champion Diaz del Rio Soto had the honor to represent Spain,
swimming to “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras.
Scoring his highest difficulty and
total score to date, 26.05 and 224.8233 respectively, Diaz del Rio Soto made
the most of the opportunity climbing to the top of the podium for the gold
medal.
After the win, Diaz shared that the
support from the Spanish crowd in Oviedo added to his best performance to date:
“Ah, I think that’s my best-ever score for execution. I don’t know what to say,
I think competing at home helped me out a lot. I felt the crowd with me. This
gave me some extra energy, some extra motivation and focus. I felt very
powerful, too. All the people that came out to watch today’s competition, I
really appreciated it.”
Diaz del Rio Soto on Fukuoka: “I’m
very satisfied with my performance; I felt excellent in the water. I definitely
felt the nerves competing today, but I was able to handle this very well. I
think I’m progressing very well to Fukuoka. I’ll be ready for a great routine
at the world championships.”
Both the silver medalist,
Kazakhstan’s Eduard Kim and the bronze medalist, Colombian Gustavo Sanchez,
were unable to execute the declared difficulty of their last hybrid, losing
points on their difficulty score. However, Kim’s “S.O.S. d'un terrien en
détresse” performed to music by Kazakhstani singer Dimash was powerful and
expressive, earning him an impressive 92.9 for artistic impression, moving him
into second place with a total of 200.6000 points. Claiming the final step on
the podium at his first Super Final, Sanchez scored 198.1767 points for “The
End of the World” on music from “Avengers”. Sanchez commented on the changes in
the difficulty of the routine that will need attention prior to Fukuoka:
“Really, I was so, so nervous. I had
so many feelings competing today. It’s my first Super Final and we’ve made so
many changes to my routine in such a short period of time. I had some
penalties, but it’s okay. To get where I want to go at the world championships,
I needed to heighten the difficulty of my routine. We think for the world
championships this change to my routine will play out well. Now, I need to
train more and become more comfortable with the new, tougher routine.”
MIXED DUET TECHNICAL
Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Emma Garcia won Spain’s second gold
medal for their choreography swum to classic electronic music by Dark Moor
named “Vivaldi’s Winter”. While this is
the pair’s first time competing together this season, their performance showed
experience, ability, and great synchronization. The pair scored 237.6534 points
to secure the top of the podium. Garcia,
last year’s Super Final Champion in both the Mixed Duets events, provided an
insight on the success of their swim, “Dennis and I, we’re really calm persons.
We train a lot and we’re focused on how to behave in a quiet readiness for
these moments. We’re not ones to let all these expectations be the wrong energy
for us.”
Gonzalez Bonue, who broke his foot
earlier this season, said “I’m just so happy to be back competing after
breaking my foot earlier this year. I’ve missed the two previous World Cups,
and I’ve just been waiting to get back to competing again. I’m excited about
this.”
Garcia on what is next: “We’re trying
to feel more secure. We’re feeling more and more confident throughout this
year. We’re excited to improve a little bit more at next month’s European
Championships and carry this momentum into the World Championships.”
Colombians Gustavo Sanchez and
Jennifer Cerquera Hatiusca received a personal best score, 222.2617 points, for
their routine “The Mystery of the Ocean” swum to the song “Golden Fists” by
Brand X Music. Their difficulty score matched that of the Spaniards, but
several timing errors and their execution resulted in the silver medal.
The bronze medal with 215.6050 points
went to the pair representing Kazakhstan, Nargiza Bolatova and Eduard Kim. The
pair’s choreography swum to music from the animated musical Corpse Bride
showcased great music interpretation and a high starting difficulty, which they
were able to execute until the final hybrid.
MIXED TEAM TECHNICAL
With the absence of the Top three
ranked countries from the World Cup series, Japan, USA, and Italy, the path to
the medals was wide open for the six countries competing in Oviedo. Spectator’s
favourite Spain, was the final participant, adding to the excitement when the
scores were finally revealed.
The routine “Japanese Flamenco”,
which started with a very risky acrobatic move which they executed perfectly,
showcased very precise pattern changes and great interpretation of the music
throughout. The Spaniards received their highest difficulty score yet, 36.90,
for a total of 278.2350 points and the gold medal.
According to Paula Ramirez Ibanez the
team will continue refining and increasing the difficulty en route to Fukuoka,
“Since our last World Cup in Montpellier, France we’ve added much more
difficulty to our routine. It’s always a risk, but we knew what we wanted to change.
We’re really proud of what we were able to display tonight with our new
routine.
"At the World Championships,
we’ll look to refine our elements and keep increasing our difficulty. So, we’ll
keep moving. I think in artistic swimming it's impossible to keep with the same
choreography until the end. We are always trying to improve this part of our
routine, make it better and add more artistry and difficulty into our
performance. No, we’ll keep changing and keep pushing for more difficulty.”
While Ukraine’s performance of the
choreography titled “Unbreakable Faith and Hope” scored higher in artistic
impression than the Spanish team, the difficulty and execution of the hybrids
and required technical elements in the Ukrainian routine resulted in 264.6566
points for the silver medal.
The French team scored 243.1057
points for "Trip to Space." With a starting degree of difficulty of
35.75, second only to Spain, the failure to execute the last hybrid in the
routine, resulted in a base mark. Fortunately for the French, the scores
received for artistic impression and the other required elements were high
enough to claim the bronze medal.
WHAT'S UP NEXT?
The live results will be available on
the World Aquatics website for this weekend’s competition in Oviedo, Spain:
Saturday, June 3
11:00 Women and Men Solo Free
16:30 Women Duet Technical
19:00 Mixed Team Free
Sunday, June 4
11:00 Women Duet Free and Mixed Duet
Free
17:00 Acrobatic
Written by Maureen Croes, World
Aquatics correspondent
Image Source: Juan Manuel Serrano
Arce/Getty Images
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