World’s greatest Team Russia did not disappoint today and reasserted its leading position in the sport over the theme “Angels, two steps from the hell”. The Russians, coached by internationally renowned Tatiana Pokrovskaya, grabbed the gold medal with 196.1439 points (97.0106 + 99.1333), confirming dominance in the Olympics since the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

Synchronised swimming aces Romashina and Ishchenko both add a fifth gold medal to their impressive Olympic tally (Beijing, London (2x) and Rio).


Team Russia ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia

China seconded the Russians with a total of 192.9841, giving them their second silver medals at the Olympics after London 2012, with a slightly different composition of the team. China took bronze in Beijing 2008.

As expected following the preliminary round, Japan clinched the last medal available today, the bronze, with 189.2056 accumulated points. Japan made its come back in Rio, after missing medals in this event in Beijing and London. However in Athens the team had claimed silver.

Anna Tarres’ newest prodigies of Ukraine have been progressing a lot and have shown great hopes in Rio. The team scored an accumulated total of 188.6080 points and ranked fourth. Inspired by a theme around “Magic”, the swimmers entered the pool with a white swimsuit, which showed some additional details in black when in contact with the water.


Team China ©Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia

Italy’s synchro team offered a beautiful and highly technical routine, themed “The season on Earth” by Michele Braga and ranked fifth with a good 183.3809 points (91.1142 + 92.2667) in total, which left them slightly disappointed for not reaching the podium.

The spectators in the arena warmly welcomed their team today, who leaved their compatriots amazed by their technical skills and edgy routine. The team got 171.9985 points in total.

Egypt was the first nation to present its routine today at the Maria Lenk outdoor swimming pool. The African team scored 78.5667, giving it an accumulated 155.5505 points, seventh rank.

Team event final ranking:

1. Russia
2. China
3. Japan
4. Ukraine
5. Italy
6. Brazil
7. Egypt
8. Australia

The synchronised swimming competition in Rio is now over and all detailed results can be found here.

QUOTES

Svetlana ROMASHINA (RUS) – gold:

"We cried after the performance, you could say we were bawling, because we understood perfectly that we executed our programme well. We watched the underwater shots and saw that the lifts and the synchrony worked out, so we understood that everything went well. There were so many tears and we were feeling so much relief and happiness that we did everything."

"After these scores, we understood perfectly that the result won't change because it is unlikely that anybody would score higher than 99 points. On top of that, we had 1.5 points in reserve from the technical programme and nobody could physically get an 11-point score."

"Natalia and I caught up to Anastasia Davydova (RUS). To be honest, when we got the fourth medal at these Olympic Games, we thought that we were still missing one medal to make the Olympic rings. Now we have the five rings."

"This is one of the best routines that I've seen in the team event. Natalia and I did not take part in putting together this routine and we had to blend into the team later on. At this point we needed to understand what it is that we must convey in this routine.”

"Right now we just want to rest because this year was very hard for us, me and Natalia. We competed in teams and duets, and did a solo at the European championships. There was double the responsibility, double the workload, so now we want to relax our bodies and our minds."

SUN Wenyan (CHN) – silver:

"Synchronised swimming has a relatively short history in China, so at London 2012 we made a historical breakthrough. We got the first medal and in Rio this year we got silver in duet, and for the team event today I think we did really well."

"I am not sure why Russia has an edge compared to us, but I think that certainly with our pace we have become a challenge and a threat to Russia."

"Earlier this year we were all involved in making the routine and deciding the elements to incorporate. We spent a lot of time deciding the elements that would go into the routine.

"We spent a lot of time on the technical requirements of the routine. By April and May, we thought we had a bit of confidence in terms of the technicalities of the routine. All of our suggestions and all the brilliant ideas from our coach went into the routine, which I think was very well received.

"In our routine we also have some western elements, which I think went over really well with the audience as well as the judges. The cultural theme of our routine is very different so if people like our music they will just naturally fall in love with our routine."

"I didn't over-think too much about the final scores. The last lift we did in the water, I felt that we didn't do it to perfection, but overall I didn't think too much about the scores."

"We did a lot of training in outdoor facilities because we knew at that time it would be an outdoor event. We really got ourselves used to the weather in an open-air pool.

"We went to Italy for our training and, at the time, it was an excellent season so there was lots of sunshine, which was a bit like the weather in Rio, so we got really used to the weather here."