Round-up: Rivals aim to emulate clean-sweep Russia

Reigning Olympic champions Russia remained dominant in the Synchronised Swimming but China and Spain have pledged to rival them in the future.

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA (11/8). The Russian Team held on to their Olympic title with a score of 197.030 - three points clear of silver medallists China, and nearly four above bronze medallistsSpain.

They have won gold at every World Championships since 1998 and seem to be almost unbeatable, with Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina sealing the Duets title for Russa too.

China's Jiang Wenwen said: 'The Russians' performance was almost perfect. They are idols for us, they are models for us to learn. Perhaps in the future we can catch up little by little and close the gap.'

Alba Cabello Rodilla from the Spanish team said beating the gold medallists was 'not impossible'.

'The Russian team has great technical potential but we are very strong on the artistic aspects, so why not beat Russia one day? It's not impossible,' she said.

Russian coach Tatiana Pokrovskaya, who was thrown in the pool by her team as they celebrated, said she gets inspiration from rival teams.

'It's great to have serious competitors because everything they do we learn from. Our programmes were so different, the inspiration behind them was so different, and that's inspiring. At this level it's fantastically imaginative.

'I've learned from the other teams and I want my girls to learn from them.'

Russia performed both their technical and free routines to music by Denis Garnizov, while China adopted a butterfly theme for their free piece.

Spain, who missed out on the silver medal by just one point, insisted they were not disappointed by the result.

Thais Henriquez Torres said: "We are very happy because above all, the most important thing for us, was the feedback that we got from our coaching team. They were very happy.

'We think we've done better than ever here, we've shone today more than we shone yesterday.'

Results

Synchronised Swimming - Medals

1.      Russian Federation (2-0-0)

2.      People's Republic of China (0-1-1)

3.      Spain (0-1-1)

Women's Duets

1.      ISHCHENKO Natalia / ROMASHINA Svetlana (98.900)

2.      CARBONELL BALLESTERO Ona / FUENTES FACHE Andrea (96.900)

3.      HUANG Xuechen / LIU Ou (96.770)

Women's Teams

1.      Russia (197.030)

2.      China (194.010)

3.      Spain (193.120)

Russia retain Team Synchronised Swimming title

Reigning Olympic Synchronised Swimming champions Russia held onto their title today, winning gold in the Team event.

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA (10/8). The squad clinched victory with a combined score of 197.030 for their Technical and Free routines, both set to music by Denis Garnizov.

Russia have dominated Synchronised Swimming in recent years, having won every World Championships since 1998 and taking gold at the 2008 Beijing Games.

China were beaten into second place, with a combined score of 194.010, while Spain clinched bronze with 193.12.

Russia's Anzhelika Timanina said: 'It was very good, it was really hard work. We're really happy because we've trained really hard and there were a lot of emotions but it ended very well.

'For four girls in our team it is their first Olympics and they are very emotional.'

She said once again Russia had proved that they are the best in the world in this sport.

'We have amazing coaches and we have an amazing team. Of course the other countries here are very good, but I think now the results speak for themselves.'

Champions are the Team to beat

Russia

Reigning Olympic Games champions Russia made a strong start to the Team competition at the Aquatics Centre today as they put themselves on course to defend their title.

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA (9/9).  The Russians, who started the competition as favourites, performed their technical routine to Russian Dance by Denis Garnizov, and came away with the top score of the day, 98.100.

That put them in a commanding position at the top of the leaderboard, with China in second place with 97.000, and Spain third with 96.200. 

Svetlana Romashina, part of the Russian team, said they were pleased with their solid start.

She said: 'It was good, our coaches were very happy and our scores were high.

'We're really happy because all the elements were very clear, and we'll try to put in another strong performance tomorrow.'

The final stage of the competition is tomorrow when the teams will perform their free routines.

Ishchenko and Romashina maintain Russian success

Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina continued Russian domination of Synchronised Swimming with gold in the Duets on Day 11.

The Russian duo were in a class of their own with a haunting routine inspired by horror films Surprisia and Sleepy Hollow.

They scored 98.900 points today - just 1.100 off perceived perfection - which, when added to their technical score, gave them a combined total of 197.100 out of a maximum 200.

Spain were second, 4.200 behind, having leapfrogged China in the battle for silver and bronze medals.

Russians near perfect again

Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina

The Russian duo have dominated today's Synchronised Swimming action, with their free routine judged near perfect.

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA (6/8). Russia has been the nation to beat in Synchronised Swimming since winning their first gold at Sydney 12 years ago and are the clear favourites at London 2012.

Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina concluded a nigh-on perfectly executed, haunting routine to the music of the film Sleepy Hollow today.

Their technical routine was judged to have been just 1.800 off perfection yesterday and today the judges awarded them a total of 98.600.

When combined with yesterday's mark, that gave them an overall result of 196.800 out of 200.

China go into the final in second place, with Spain third.

Ischenko said: 'Today we are maybe about 90 per cent happy. We have small things to fix for the final. I hope the judges did not see the mistakes our coach saw.'