Natalia Ishchenko gave Russia its fourth gold medal of the synchronised swimming competitions at the 13th FINA World Championships Rome 2009 by winning the final of the Solo Free event. After the victories in the Team Technical, Solo Technical (also Ishchenko) and Duet Technical, Russia is dominating the operations, but is also being closely followed by Spain, who conquered the silver medal (its fourth, in the events where Russians were first), one day after getting its first World Championships’ gold in the Free Combination. In third, a new nation made its entry into the “club” of countries having medalled at the FINA World Championships – Italy (with its star Beatrice Adelizzi).

Natalia Ishchenko, from Russia, conquered her ninth medal at FINA World Championships by winning the second final of the 2009 synchronised swimming competitions at the Foro Italico in Rome (ITA) today. In the Technical Solo event, Ishchenko received a total of 98.667, leaving behind her Gemma Mengual (ESP, 97.833), the “eternal” second place competitor, as well as Canada’s Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon (96.000).

The first final of synchronised swimming at the 13th FINA World Championships – the Team Technical event – provoked the first surprise of the competition in this discipline: if the victory of Russia was expected (and natural), the fifth place of Japan constitutes a serious hiccup in the history of this country’s successful tradition in synchronised swimming: since 1973, Japan has always been on the podium of the team event, including in 2007, when the programme was split between the technical and free finals.