Duet free programme

The preliminary competition started on Wednesday with the duet free programme. Elena Ternovskaya and Anna Udovik took the lead with 95.300 (50 per cent of this result goes to the total amount). It was a real success for these athletes who have worked together for just three months.

Their coach Tanyana Danchenko (who also works with the famous Olympic gold medallist duo of Anastasia Ermakova/ Anastasia Davydova) set a high standard for her young swimmers: Ternovskaya/Udovik performed the same routine that brought Olympic gold medals to Ermakova/Davydova in Athens.

It was also evident that the Russian duo is trying to copy their teammate’s style in general. Very fast, very aggressive, and very successful.

Yukiko Inui and Mariko Sakai (JPN) held on to the second position (92.600) ahead of Ona Carbonell/Magdalida Crespi (ESP) – 92.200.
The first event showed very high level of concurrence and plenty of interesting and complicated routines.

The audience was very excited with the first appearance on the international level of the duo from Taipei Lin Li-Chien/Lin Yen Ling. This country had never taken part in an international synchronised swimming competition and it was really great to watch the newcomers among the other participants.

Lin Li-Chien/Lin Yen Ling got the last, 24th position after the preliminaries but the first step - the hardest one – was done successfully.

Team free routine

Russia was a favourite in the second event too, and their team free routine to Khatchaturian’s music was excellent.

The only unpredictable accident in this event happened to the Canadian team: 15 seconds before the end of the program their music stopped. A second attempt was given to the team after the last competitors and the second performance was finely executed.

Overview

The organisation of the tournament in general is very good. St. Petersburg Centre Swimming Pool is the only facility in the world with an extra pool created exclusively for synchronised swimming. The second pool (50 m length), which is usually used for swimmers, gave the teams possibility to warm-up and train all day long without bothering each other. The athletes and coaches mentioned that meals, accommodations and all training facilities are perfect as well.