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Jr Synchro Worlds, Kazan, Day 3: Host Russia dominated the Figure session
Written by:Olga Kamardina, FINA Correspondent in Russia
242 participants of the 15th FINA World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championships have tested their technical merit and must-have skills on competition Day 3 at the 15th FINA World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia.
A Figure session is always a quieter part of the synchronised swimming competition. There is no crowd at the spectator stands, loudly cheering for the impressive lifts. There are no coaches at the deck as they shall leave their swimmers alone in front of the judge’s panel. All dressed in black swimsuits and white caps, they individually perform 4 figures to have the scoring summed up with those of the routines.
The Figure competition of Kazan included Barracuda airborne split, Porpoise twist spin, Manta ray and Butterfly. The results brought a few surprises as the host Russian kept on dominating the third day to go. Debutant of the Championships Varvara Subbotina finished atop, scoring 82.0856 points, followed by her teammate Daria Kulagina, 80.0833, and Irene Toledano of Spain, 79.5878 points. Ukranian Yelyzaveta Yakhno came after, earning 79.5473 points, chased by two Russians Anastasiya Arkhipova and Mayya Gurbanberdieva, which received 79.2568 and 78.8851 points respectively.
Results of the Figure competitions became the part of the Preliminary routines totaling chart to picture a few changes, comparing to the previous days ranking.
Figure competition at the Aquatic Palace of Kazan
Figure competition helped Varvara Subbotina of Russia to strengthen her leading pace in Solo Preliminary, earning 1172.6856 points overall. Ukraine’s Yelyzaveta Yakhno is placed second as she collected 168.2473 points, and Irene Toledano (165.5878 points) came one step up, outscoring Sakiko Akutsu of Japan (165.3699).
Russians are first in the Team Preliminary, totalling 169.5549 points, whereas Japan moved up to the 2nd position with 165.3978 points, and downed China, finishing third with 164.3649 points.
In duet’s chart the three best remained unchanged: Russian Veronika Kalinina/Daria Kulagina currently rank first (169.6455), followed by Japanese Kirara Oya/Mashiro Yasunaga (164.5131) and Yelyzaveta Yakhno/Yana Nariezhna (164.4185).
Quotes
Natalia Mendygalieva, Senior coach of the team Russia:
“Our marks speak out for ourselves. We trained hard, and here are the fruits. Of course, we are pleased both with the scoring and the way our swimmers did today, as we finished atop in all the three routines and Varvara Subbotina won the Figure competition”.
Jennier Tregale, Head coach of the team Canada:
“The figures chosen are quite hard. Barracuda airborne split is risky for sure, Manta ray is very long, Butterfly has a super fast transition in it, so it makes it a little bit trickier. Figures are the more technical and skills-based side of the synchronised swimming. It is 50% of the final score, so it counts very majorly. Swimmers are supposed to show all their technical skills of the execution, sculling, and others and actually this is what they need to be technically an excellent synchronised swimmer”.
Enrica Piccoli, member of the Junior Italian team on synchronised swimming:
“To pass your exam you are to learn the lesson. Unless you learn a simple lesson, you can’t move on further as your knowledge and experience are not enough to progress. The same holds true for the figure session in the synchronised swimming. Figures are fundamental and vital as they are laying the basis for the strong technical command. We all love performing routines, which are more on the artistic side, and at the same time we highly appreciate Figure sessions”.
Irene Toledo, member of the Junior Spanish team on synchronised swimming:
“We train 6 – 8 hours a day to be competitive, and we never cease improve ourselves in the execution. We are constantly striving to reach progress and improve our technical level. I finished third in the Figure competition, but I think, that Russian girls are incredible in technique, and also Japanese and Chinese are very strong too”.