Hungary can’t stop recalling the greatest moments of the 2017 FINA World Championships, and the locals are doing that in style: they organise top FINA Events in succession. Last year they had five in four disciplines, this year the number has been raised to seven in the four sports – it’s artistic swimming’s turn this weekend (and open water’s one, see our other preview).
A month after the FINA Champion Swim Series and just days after the FINA Women’s Water Polo World League Super Final, the Duna Arena welcomes back the best artistic swimmers for the first edition of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series Super Final.
This event is another novelty FINA created to make the competition even more exciting and rewarding. Besides the completion of the overall ranking in each event – here a pot of 257.000 USD are up for grabs –, the Super Final itself offers 310.000 USD extra bonus for the best six nations, with the top ranked team earning $100.000.
“We are doing everything for the athletes” underlined Lisa Schott, Chair of FINA Technical Artistic Swimming Committee at the opening press conference of the event.
“If you ask how the sport can still evolve, my answer is, ask our athletes, or just look at their commitment, their efforts which they are ready to make every single day.”
Incoming president of the Hungarian Artistic Swimming Federation Arpad Szabo, introducing himself as an active masters swimmer (though no intention yet to test the mixed event at the Masters Worlds), said that with three weeks in the office he faced a great challenge immediately by making the proper preparations for this Super Final but his team did a great job in order to maintain the level the FINA Family got used to in recent years.
Natalia Tarasova, head coach of the Hungarian team, said that there are a couple of tough months behind them as the girls had to travel a lot as they took part several legs in the World Series.
“But it was worth all efforts as we wanted them to be part of several situations to get used to travelling through time zones, competing on different continents. That made our team ready for the World Championships and this Super Final will be a great occasion to show that.”
Action from the Duna Arena can be followed live on FINAtv but at the press conference a great new application was also presented by Antenna Hungaria, the host broadcaster of the 2017 FINA Worlds. This new app called ‘Mindigo’ offers thematic sport channels available in Hungary and also serves as a streaming platform for events not broadcasted live by the respective channels. The upcoming Super Final is going to be the month’s highlight for the new app.
Sessions on Friday and Saturday kick-off at 14.30 (CET), while on Sunday the start is at 14.00. Stay tuned!