SOLO FREE: Cerruti adds to her winning record

Thanks to the Russian Championships incorporation to the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series, Solo Free of Kazan's Leg boasted a solid 34 competitors, striving to reach the top. It happened so, that home stars like Svetlana Kolesnichenko, already victorious in Leg#3, or Varvara Subbotina, who was a hit last year both in the World Series and at the FINA Junior Worlds in Budapest, were not a part of the competition, leaving the door open for the rising soloists. There were some 4 Russians landing on the scores over 81, which were in chase for the international glory. The most successful of them, however, turned out to earn silver. Alina Mantulenko, coached by the 3-time Olympic champion Olga Brusnikina, was only 18 years old as she celebrated her international debut.

 

It may sound weird, but the total of 87.0333 with 34.5355 on the artistic impression, did not bring to the swimmer any satisfaction.

“I can swim much better, - she said, weeping tears, - I know, I could be a better result. I love this program very much. It is called “Reveil”, which is referred as “Awakening” from French. It is complicated rather functionally than technically. It is all about emotions, which was a challenge to implement”.

In the absence of the Russian stars, Italian gold never looked in doubt. Linda Cerruti demonstrated her high energy program “Angel” landing on 90.4000 points. As it turned out, during 2 minutes of her Free Solo she was struggling not only with the complicated elements on the list, but also with the controversial character of the routine.

“Angel vs. Demon is an ever-existing story, which was the main inspiration for me, - explained Linda Cerruti. – Controversial feelings are locked in the body and you never know when they might need to get free. My costume is the best illustration for this idea. I like it a lot, this is why I preferred to take this routine for one more edition of the FINA Artistic World Series. My main concern today, as usual, was not to exceed the time limit for the deck presentation. I confess, I had some issues with it in previous competitions”.

Vasilina Khandoshka of Belarus with her “Alice in the Wonderland” swam just before her main challenger. As she confessed, it was not at all stimulating, but she preferred not to think of the competitiveness performing. She was focused to complete all the required elements on a good height and was rewarded accordingly by a bronze, 86.0667, her second this season.

“I am happy about the medal I received and about the resulting overall, - said Vasilina. – Comparing to my bronze of Paris, Leg #1, I have improved by some 4 points, which is a good sign. I will do my best to keep on growing and improving skills to show my best shape in Korea”.

Spanish Irene Jimeno, Mireia Hernandez and Alisa Ozhogina stood at hand to the podium, within one point, ranking from 4th to 6th, whereas it was pretty hard for the other nations to look competitive in this hot pursuit.

DUET FREE: Russian festival goes on

 

Olympic champions Svetlana Romashina/Svetlana Kolesnichenko presented to Kazan the unforgettable UFO program. Romashina used to swim it with Natalia Ischenko and was always victorious. The good winning traditions kept to her new partner. Their skills never looked in doubt, so did their partnership and synchronization. They had no visible problems performing strong list of elements to the original piece of music, and what was very special about their performance, they truly enjoyed it. Russians fully inherited the alien image to earn incredible 97.1000 points and leave all their chasers far behind.

“I am pleased with the way we performed, - coach Tatiana Danchenko could not keep her smile commenting. – Girls have done a great job! They have coped with the main challenge – to keep up a good height and a good tempo. There were some mistakes though, which I noted, but that’s quite OK for the start of the season.

“We have been presenting a program from the past, - she added. – It was on the show in 2015 only. We shall have a surprise in store for FINA World Championships-2019”.

Italian beauties Linda Cerruti/Costanza Ferro reigned second-supreme on their “Clashing steel” performance. And again, the choice of music was very peculiar, as the duo fully relied on Italian DJs.

“We are pleased with the way we performed today and with the scores she has received – 27.7000 in the execution, 36.6667 – on the artistic impression and 27.5000 – on the difficulty, - said Linda Cerruti. – We have improved comparing to the previous leg, and of course, we are not disappointed with the second place. Russians have deserved their win with their fantastic program”.

 

The same pleasant mood was within the Spanish Irene Jimenez/Mireia Hernandes. Both finished at a hand to the podium in the solo free and were happy to take their chance for a reward. A highly entertaining hip-hop “Schreck-dance” booked them their first medal piece in the new season as long as their personal season’s best, 87.4000.

“This is first year as we dance together, and we are working everyday, 5 to 8 hours, to improve our technical skills and obtain a good chemistry in the water. Interaction between artistic swimmers is very important, and, as the results show are very often is the principal component for the victory”.

Khandoshka/Kulagina of Belarus stood at a mere 0.6000 to the podium with their fluid dance of witches, followed by Uzbekistan, Serbia, Hungary and Finland.

MIXED DUET FREE: Russian double gold haul in Kazan

Podium in the Mixed Duet Free fully resembled the one of the Technical program.

 

Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev swam first, setting a high bar for the next competitors. Dancing to the jazz-inspired “Sing, sing, sing!” by B.Goodman, first presented 3 years ago, they were sublime and bought a solid box of 91.4000, split into 27.0000 on execution, 27.5000 on difficulty and marvelous 36.8000 on the artistic impression. None of their rivals could either repeat or come close to their achievement.

“I rarely track scoring while my swimmers compete, - commented on her another gold Russian coach Gana Maksimova. – Mayya and Aleksandr were not bad today, let’s put it this way. On the one hand, they looked tired after a difficult swim yesterday evening, where they gave it all to show their best. The competitions are almost over, that’s time to draw conclusions. The duo did not have done crucial mistakes, though I could see some nuances here and there, such as the lack of height. We have a good food for analyses”.

On the contrary, silver looked like a good harvest for the Chinese duo, 84.4333. Cheng Wentao/Shi Haoyu related the legend of a butterfly, known to every Chinese. They were like the main characters of the legend, who were split and forbidden to love each other and their hearts broke to turn them into butterflies and fly away. Like techno, the free program was new and needed brushing. Irrelevant of the medal gained, the duo noted they would need to work more returning home.

 

“We have really enjoyed our program, - confessed Shi Haoyu. - We are overwhelmed with emotions. We are happy about the results and 2 silver medals, which we have earned here. We would like to say thank You to our coaches, who have been very attentive to us. We hope, that our collaboration in the future will be even more fruitful”.

Fernando Diaz del Rio/Beatriz Castano finished on third. Representatives of two different Spanish areas - Madrid and Canary Islands – totaled 77.3667, and were at a distance to the leading two.

“It is a great experience for us to swim and compete strong opponents, - said Fernando Diaz del Rio. – We respect them a lot, and we try to learn watching them in action live. This is very important to have a chance learn international competition experience, because it is a good motivation. Competing at home and abroad are two different stories”.

TEAM FREE: Shamans golden again

Overnight leaders Russians collected their third gold of the day, which numbered 7th overall, in the Team Free contest.

 

Once appearing on the stage, the host team amazed everyone in the crowd. The Famous “Shamans” program, staged by Tatiana Pokrovskaya and Elena Gryzunova before the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, is a sort of a legend in the artistic world. Anastasiia Arkhipovskaia, Vlada Chigireva, Marina Goliadkina, Veronika Kalinina, Polina Komar, Alla Shishkina, Varvara Subbotina, Mikhaela Kalancha and Mayya Doroshko did not disappoint Russian public, improving FINA ASWS season’s best to 97.9000. Comparing to last season, they have improved by 0.9000.

“This is the first international swim of the season for the Team Free, and its principal function is to provide us with the indications as to we go right or not, - noted Tatiana Pokrovskaya, head coach of the team Russia. – The program is not new, but there are a number of freshmen in the team. Unlike our duo or soloists we can not afford ourselves run 2 versions of one of the program. The season is pretty tough. The world championships in Budapest shall be the 5th major competition for us”.

Belarus delivered a dynamic and intense “Dragon fight”, which they never tested before. Like yesterday, the performance was not perfect. Collecting 82,6333 overall, they were nevertheless apt for the bronze.

“Supports were not good at all, - confessed Belarus head coach. – We are very disappointed. We left the door open for our opponents to jump on the podium”.

In contrast stood the post-performance spirit of the Spaniards. Presenting the Avatar-story, they scored 87.9000, which was definitely less than they got last year, when they won Leg#6 of the FINA ASWS in Madrid (91.8332), but pretty enough to secure silver now in Kazan.

“We are proud for our juniors to have coped with it pretty well as if it was not of the highest degree of difficulty, - they said. - The program is borrowed from the senior National team of Ukraine, which first presented it at the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan”.

Competitions in Kazan will come to a close tomorrow, on 21 April, as 2 more sets of medals will be awarded in Team Highlights and Free Combination.

 

Competition results. FINA Artistic Swimming World Series 2019. Competition Day 2

Solo Free:

1. Cerruti Linda (ITA) 90.4000
2. Mantulenko Alina (RUS) 87.0333
3. Khandoshka Vasilina (BLR) 86.0667
4. Jimeno Irene (ESP) 85.0667
5. Hernandez Mireia (ESP) 84.5667
6. Ozhogina Ozhogin Alisa (ESP) 84.4333
7. Russanova Jennifer (KAZ) 78.1333
8. Kontic Jelena (SRB) 77.3667
9. Dimitrijevic Nevena (SRB) 76.0667
10. Ambrazaite Natalija (LTU) 75.0000
11. Pitkanen Linnea (FIN) 72.9667
12. Sainio Melania (FIN) 71.7333

Duets Free

1. Kolesnichenko Svetlana/Romashina Svetlana (RUS) 97.1000
2. Cerruti Linda/Ferro Costanza (ITA) 91.8667
3. Hernandez Mireia/Jimeno Irene (ESP) 87.4000
4. Khandoshka Vasilina/Kulagina Daria (BLR) 86.8000
5. Eltisheva Anna/Morozova Anastasiia (UZB) 77.7000
6. Dimitrijevic Nevena/Kontic Jelena (SRB) 77.5667
7. David Janka/Gacs Boglarka (HUN) 76.9000
8. Sainio Melania/Tuuli Sini (FIN) 69.1333

Mixed Duet Free

1. Gurbanberdieva Mayya/Maltsev Aleksandr (RUS) 91.4000
2. Cheng Wentao/Shi Haoyu (CHN) 84.4333
3. Diaz del Rio Fernando/Castano Beatriz (ESP) 77.3667

Team Free

1. RUSSIA (Arkhipovskaia Anastasiia, Chigireva Vlada, Goliadkina Marina, Kalinina Vtronika, Komar Polina, Shishkina Alla, Shurochkina Mariia, Subbotina Varvara) 97.9000
2. SPAIN (Arquero Gema, Bellver Teresa, Calvo Judith, Coronado Martina, Garcia Paula, Hernandez Mireria, Jimeno Irene, Julia Claudia) 87.9000
3. BELARUS (Butsel Vera, Kiryliuk Marharyta, Koutsun Hanna, Kuliashova Kseniya, Navasiolava Anastasiya, Privezentseva Vita, Valasach Valeryia, Vysotskaya Aliaksandra) 82.6333
4. KAZAKHSTAN (Abdulina Karina, Bolatova Nargiza, Kakutia Eteri, Krylova Yelena, Kurmangaliyeva Aigerim, Simonova Yekaterina, Yezdakova Olga, Zhiyengazy Zhaniya) 81.4667
5. HUNGARY (Apathy Anna, David Janka, Farkas Linda, Gacs Boglarka, Hungler Szabina, Kassai Kamilla, Szabo Anna, Teravagimov Virag) 79.2333