FINA World Championships 2013: Synchro, Day 6: Russia wins, Spain "reborn" with silver in team free

SYNCHRO, 26 July 2013

The Russians extended their unbeaten streak in synchronised swimming at World Championships, clinching the team free title with a total 97.400 at Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi this evening. The synchro powerhouse staged a dramatic performance, unveiling a brand-new free programme, which incorporated intricate legwork of unmatched precision and sky-high lifts fully mastered.

Team Russia celebrated their 15-year reign in this event, totalling a record eight successive crowns. The brilliant score was reflective of the extraordinary style and athleticism that was on display by the eight Russian swimmers.

Spain’s excellent performance set to the theme of "Samsara", which means "continuous flow" or reincarnation in Tibetan, earned a total 94.230 points. In their glittering red swimsuits, the local squad presented a new artistic programme, which combined movements of great difficulty, and thrilled the home crowd with spectacular throws. With this silver, the home team bags their sixth medal at these World Championships (2 silver and 4 bronze). 

Not far and rounding out the podium was team Ukraine, whose vibrant, Indian-inspired routine received an overall 93.640 points. Their radiant performance was marked by original figures, physical strength and a clear sense of elegance, for a free programme that definitely added value to the race for top honours.

Ukraine finished sixth in the event in Shanghai. Appearing in the world top-10 since 2003, Europe’s number 3 continued rising ever-higher in the ranks of the world’s top synchro teams, picking up their second bronze at these World Championships.

In doing so, Ukraine entered the small club of countries that have medalled in the event: USA, Canada and Japan, which dominated the podium from the first world edition in 1973 until 1991, Russia (12 titles including free and technical), Spain (first podium in 2005) and most recently, China in 2009.

Just out of medal range was team Japan, while Italy and Canada placed fifth and sixth, respectively

FINA World Championships 2013: Romashina on top, China's Huang wins duel for silver

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA-En route to her second world solo gold, Russia’s Svetlana Romashina held on to her imposing lead over China’s Xuechen Huang and local favourite Ona Carbonell to capture her country’s third consecutive title in the solo free.

The 24-year-old, the only one from the team in Barcelona to have competed at two Olympic Games (2008 and 2012), revealed her theatrical skills in a Marilyn Monroe-inspired routine, which reflected her energetic and likeable personality, scoring a total 97.340 points.

Ona Carbonell’s moving free programme paid tribute to her home Games in 1992, swimming to operatic soprano Montserrat Caballe’s duet with rock singer Freddie Mercury, the Barcelona-based swimmer’s magnificent performance lit up the Palau Sant Jordi and carried away the audience, earning a total 94.290 points from the judges.

Going into the final, Carbonell had a considerable weight on her shoulders: to repeat the silver obtained in the event by Spain’s solo icon Gemma Mengual in 2009 and Andrea Fuentes in 2011.

But Xuechen Huang from China, already owner of two world silver medals in the solo technical, proved too strong, edging the Iberian swimmer with an overall score of 95.720. For her first solo free performance, Huang chose a music piece by the Phantom of the Opera, showing her versatility and artistic talent in convincing fashion.

The fourth best was Ukraine’s Lolita Ananasova followed by the Japanese Inui Yukiko, fifth, and Chloe Isaac from Canada, in sixth place.

QUOTES:

Gold medal winner: Svetlana Romashina (RUS)

“Today was more difficult because I was nervous, I was more confident in the technical programme. I want to thank my coach Tatiana Dachenko who believed in me and encouraged me to perform this routine.”

On Marilyn-Monroe theme of the routine: “It was the idea of my coach’s daughter, Elena, she has had this idea for the last two years but we didn’t know which athlete would do it. I felt comfortable in this role. I like the character so I was really happy to play this role.”

Silver medal winner: Xuechen Huang (CHN)

"I'm very happy to have won the silver medal and I'm very satisfied with my performance in two competitions. I think I need more than four years to catch up with Svetalana Romashina."

Bronze medal winner: Ona Carbonell (ESP)

Carbonell: “I’m very happy with this medal, I am performing seven routines at these World Championships so it is hard but I hope we continue like this for the rest of the competition.”

Coach Mayuko Fujiki: “It was very much first step for Ona to represent Spain as a solo swimmer, we had very little time to train so I am very proud of her. It was very hard for her to train with a new duet partner as well [Margalida Crespi].”

Spanish synchro icon Gemma Mengual: “Ona’s performance was better than in the preliminaries, I’m happy because she took into account the corrections we made in her routine and I saw her enjoying her performance.”

On seeing her competing tonight: “It’s like a prolongation of myself. When I was watching her, I remembered myself in 2003 when I won my first medal in the solo (also a bronze).

FINA World Championships 2013: Team Ukraine makes world podium debut with bronze

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA - Ukraine celebrated their first trip to the podium at a World Championship (in synchronised swimming) with a bronze-medal winning performance in the team technical routine. The podium was exclusively European with Russia and Spain finishing 1-2.

This evening at Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi, the Russian team showed what they do best, scoring a brilliant 96.600 points for a fourth consecutive world title in the event.
Svetlana Romashina and her teammates – four of which are returning athletes from the 2012 London Olympics and won gold at the 2009 and 2011 editions of the event (Patskevich, Timanina, Korobova and Shishkina) – performed a speedy routine, marked by perfect command of figures and transitions.

The team from the host federation swam in conquered territory (the sport being very popular in Spain) and captured silver with a total 94.400 points. The Iberians’ lively routine combined excellent physical endurance, synchronisation and artistic talent. After taking two bronze in the solo and duet technical on day 1 and 2, tonight’s silver is a boost ahead of the free programmes.

Synchronised Swimming - Team technical routine, another golden show by the Russian ballet

Synchronised Swimming - Team technical routine, another golden show by the Russian ballet

FINA World Championships Barcelona 2013: Russia and Romashina get their second gold with the Duet Technical Routine

RENANG INDAH-As was expected, Russia carried on accumulating gold medals today in the Palau Sant Jordi swimming pool. Yesterday it was the Technical Solo and today the powerful supremacy of the synchronised world have added a second one, again in the hands of Svetlana Romashina, who performed today with Svetlana Kolesnichenko. The silver has gone to the Chinese partnership formed of twins Tingting and Wenwen Jiang and the bronze for the Spanish Ona Carbonell and Margarida Crespí. So the podium mirrored yesterday´s.

Svetlana Romashina, 23 years old, has become the most prize-winning swimmer until now at the 15th FINA World Championships. In Barcelona, this young girl from Moscow who studies Information Technology, has taken two consecutive golds and is aspiring for two more (solo and duet free routine). She has decided not to participate in the Team and Combo events.

Today, just like yesterday in Solo, Romashina displayed new evidence of the technical skills of Russian syncronised swimming. The routine was comparable to the Bolshoi Ballet with its artistic quality and physically convincing nature. Even after the morning session the cards were already dealt regarding the podium: Russia, China and Spain were separated by little more than one point. But the final had to be completed to see if that previous difference would maintain. And that was how it went, repeating the formation of the Solo Technical Routine podium.

Like Romashina with her gold, the Spaniard Ona Carbonell has now collected two bronze medals. Today the two solo swimmers had Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Margalida Crespí respectively, as partners on the podium.

Including today´s, Russia has now achieved 21 gold medals out of a possible 23 in the history of the World Championships since FINA decided to separate the Technical and Free Routines. Since then, they have won all of the Technical gold’s.

The schedule for tomorrow in Palau Sant Jordi includes the preliminaries of the Free Solo Routine (from 9 am until 1 pm) and the final of the Team Technical Routine in the evening at 7 pm. Russia, Spain and Ukraine will be starting off with the best scores

FINA World Championship 2013: First gold goes to Russia thanks to Svetlana Romashina

Synchronised Swimming - 2013/07/20 21:00

RENANG INDAH INDONESIA-The Russian swimmer has inaugurated the podium in Palau Sant Jordi by achieving gold in the Solo Technical event with a score of 96.860. Huang Xuechen of China took silver with 95.500 points and Ona Carbonell gets the first bronze medal for Spain with 94.400

Romashina has created more distance from the other girls by improving her score and obtaining 48.300 points in execution and 48.500 in overall impression. Huang was awarded 47.700 in execution and 47.800 points for overall impression. Ona Carbonell achieved her best score of the year with the level score of 47.200 both in execution and overall impression.

Svetlana Romashina had stepped in to substitute her teammate Natalia Ishchenko in the solo event after she announced that she would take a sabbatical year. Romashina maintained an extremely high level, keeping well out of reach of the other girls on the podium. There was more than a point’s difference which makes the level of demand even greater for those who want to get their hands on that gold meal. “I have carried the solo event in my heart since 2004, although I admit that it was not easy to substitute Ishchenko.”

Ona Carbonell has accomplished her first goal for these Championships with this medal as well as making her debut as a medallist in this event. The support from the crowd ensured that the captain of the Spanish team could improve on her performance and therefore on the result obtained in the preleminaries (94.200). This morning she admitted that although she was happy she still needed to improve her performance. She smiled as she confirmed “it´s the best technical score I´ve got this year.”

China´s representative, Huang Xuechen, performed a very classic routine inspired by Swan Lake and she said “I have done my best to win the gold medal, but it is very difficult to reach Russia.” It involved impressive vertical movements and was full of strength. Romashina showed off all her potential with a performance accentuating her height, expressivity and power. Carbonell, to the beat of Black izard brought out her most elegant and sober side. During the execution she didn’t seem to lose any energy making her whole body emerge from the water on three occasions. "It was a tough day. I will participate in 13 events which is physically and mentally tough. I look forward to competing in the solo free and aim to win the silver medal. Special thanks to the crowd, which has motivated me a lot" said Carbonell in the press conference.

Tomorrow Palau Sant Jordi will open their doors again to synchronised swimming for the preliminary tests of Duet Technical (9.00 am - 12.30 pm), Free Combination (2.00 pm – 4.30 pm) and the Duet Technical final (7.00 pm to 8.45 pm).