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”.

Competition results - Day 3

Figure competition - Top 10

1. Russia/Varvara Subbotina - 82.0856 points 2. Russia/Daria Kulagina - 80.0833 points 3. Spain/Irene Toledano - 79.5878 poins 4. Ukraine/Yelyzaveta Yakhno - 79.5473 points 5. Russia/Anastasiya Arkhipovskaya - 79.2568 points 6. Russia/Mayya Gurbanberdieva - 78.8851 points 7. Belarus/Vasilina Khandoshka - 78.8626 points 8. China/Ciyue Wang - 78.7725 points 9. Russia/Alfiya Nigmatullina - 78.7432 points 10. Russia/Veronika Kalinina - 78.7410 points 

Duet Preliminary - Total Result

1. Russia - 169.6455 points 2. Japan - 164.5131 points 3. Ukraine - 164.4185 points 4. China - 164.1559 points 5. Spain - 162.5737 points 6. Canada - 162.3052 points 7. Greece - 159.4090 points 8. USA - 159.2172 points 9. Italy - 158.3685 points 10. France - 158.1915 points 11. Belarus - 157.6056 points 12. Netherlands - 153.7327 points 13. Switzerland - 152.8867 points 14. Mexico - 152.5505 points 15. Slovakia - 148.8566 points 16. Korea - 148.7030 points 17. Colombia - 147.6185 points 18. Liechtenstein - 146.9383 points 19. Uzbekistan - 146.9383 points 20. Turkey - 146.3849 points 21. Hungary - 146.1579 points 22. Israel - 143.9955 points 23. Egypt - 143.8287 points 24. San Marino - 142.9579 points 25. Germany - 140.8167 points 26. Chile - 137.8829 points 27. Macao - 132.4461 points 28. New Zealand - 130.4468 points 29. South Africa - 123.9705 points

Solo Preliminary - Total Result

1. Russia/Varvara Subbotina - 172.6856 points 2. Ukraine/Yelyzaveta Yakhno - 168.2473 points 3. Spain/Irene Toledano - 165.5878 points 4. Japan/Sakiko Akutsu - 165.3699 5. Canada/Halle Pratt - 163.5135 points 6. Italy/Enrica Piccoli - 161.3896 points 7. Greece/Athanasia Tsola - 160.9193 points 8. Belarus/Vasilina Khandoshka - 160.2626 points 9. USA/Nicole Dzurko - 160.1581 points 10. Switzerland/Vivienne Koch - 158.3235 points 11. France/Inesse Guermoud - 157.5585 points 12. Mexico/Pamela Toscano - 154.0032 points 13. Liechtenstein/ Lara Mechnig - 153.3567 points 14. Korea/Riyoung Lee - 151.9765 points 15. Turkey/Defne Bakirci - 148.6319 points 16. Slovakia/Diana Miskechova - 148.1788 points 17. Chile/Isidora Letelier - 145.1311 points 18. Germany/Lara Lanninger - 144.7906 points 19. Colombia/Juliana Jaramillo - 144.6753 points 20. Kazakhstan/Yana Degtyareva - 144.6730 points 21. Egypt/Lila Ali - 144.6509 points 22. San Marino/Jasmine Verbena - 142.6874 points 23. Malaysia/Hua Wei Gan - 142.1887 points 24. Israel/Gal Litman - 141.5847 points 25. Uzbekistan/Khonzodakhan Toshkhujaeva - 141.5496 points 26. Venezuela/Ivanna Avila - 136.5487 points 27. Macao/Cheng Han Chau - 129.2959 points 28. South Africa/Lori Louise Niemand - 127.0820 points 29. Peru/Valeria Belen Romero - 120.9806 points

Team Preliminary - Total Result

1. Russia - 169.5549 points 2. Japan - 165.3978 points 3. China - 164.3649 points 4.Ukraine - 164.2804 points 5. Spain - 161.7457 points 6. Canada - 160.6142 points 7. Italy - 158.5857 points 8. USA - 157.7574 points 9. Greece - 157.1432 points 10. Belarus - 155.8212 points 11. Switzerland - 154.5528 points 12. Mexico - 153.2717 points 13. Hungary - 145.7978 points 14. Germany - 140.6251 points 15. Egypt - 139.4928 points 16. Uzbekistan - 138.8450 points 17. Australia - 131.5763 points