Team China displayed a beautiful and dynamic “Fight with a dragon” strong in technique and artistic impression and got silver (96,1333). Japan who showed great progress finished in the third place.

The only five-time Olympic champion in synchronised swimming in history Anastasia Davydova said that she was about to cry while watching the programme “Pray” from the tribune. First of all, the performance affected emotionally. This is one more masterpiece created by the head coach of team Russia Tatiana Pokrovskaya. Secondly, three girls out of eight – Alla Shishkina, Anzhelika Timanina and Aleksandra Patskevich – were Davydova’s teammates at her last Olympic Games in London 2012, so she cheered for them with even more passion.

Davydova also added that team Japan, from her point of view, outperformed opponents from China in synchro elements and accuracy, but should work more on acrobatics and lifts.


Team Russia in action ©Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Quotes

Gold medallist Svetlana Kolesnichenko (RUS): "We are very happy with the points we have received. We were inspired by the 10 points we got. Of course everyone is tired but there is very little left to go. This routine was quite difficult. The most important thing was to express the emotions of praying, to make people understand that we all try and protect ourselves. This is a difficult image and we have been working hard on it. And such a final, a gold medal also gives us a boost to do our best in the combination tomorrow. We will be happy and cheerful!"

Gold medallist Aleksandra Patskevich (RUS) comments after her performance:
"There is no secret about the reason for our success. Just long hours of hard work. The marks speak for themselves. I am looking at the display, there is almost a two-point margin. I like free routine better than the technical one. You can express more emotions here and improvise within the routine. While our opportunities are limited in the technical routine". 

Gold medallist Anzhelika Timanina: “We have been preparing this programme from one entire year. Now we have to prepare for the Olympic Games. We spend about ten hours per day working out but we try to avoid certain type of food especially before the competition.”

Gold medallist Vlada Chigireva: “It’s difficult to be creative in the programme but our coaches had a lot of fantasy. Our programme is hard because we represent angels who are praying. We try to touch people’s emotion. It’s a rich a powerful programme. It had been elaborated by all of us together.”

Silver medallist Sun Wenyan (CHN): "Each medal, in either solo, duo or team sports, is very precious to me. Among all the disciplines I prefer solo because solo competitions are more exciting. While when we are performing in a team we always want to be better and stronger. We have become stronger since last year". 

Silver medallist GU Xiao : “Team Russia performed so well. We would like to achieve this level one day!”

Silver medallist Yukiko Inui: “We are inspired by the sharpness of the Russians.”

Silver medallist Aika Hakoyama: “The Russians seem to swim so naturally. Their programme is fast and dynamic. We are impressed by their routine which is amazing.”