With a new scoring system in place, the highly-anticipated day arrived for the international artistic swimming community. On the first day of the inaugural World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup at the Markham Pan Am Centre in Markham, Canada three medal events were on offer.
Ukraine, Spain, and Japan each won one gold medal, but the buzz on pool deck was about the new scoring system and how the athletes prepared for this first competition.
Usually drawing number 1 in an event is seen as a disadvantage. Today in the first event on the programme, Women Solo Technical, Aruba's Kyra Hoevertsz became the first athlete to be judged by the new scoring system. She scored 166.9624 for her “Marvellous Creature” routine, swimming to "Meravigliosa Creatura."
"It was nerve-wracking, to be the first one to compete with the new system," Hoevertsz said. "Now that I am done, I think it is pretty cool for my country, as we are one of the smallest federations present here in Canada. I did feel very calm about the routine and confident about what I had to do."
The fight for the top spot on the podium was between the gold and silver medalists from the World Aquatics Championships - Budapest 2022. This time Ukraine’s Marta Fiedina scored 245.2917 points to win the gold, while Japan’s Yukiko Inui received 242.7917 points for the silver. After her beautiful artistic performance, Fiedina said:
“This competition is very important for us, because of the new rules and new scoring system. It is very important to think about what you do and determining the difficulty of the routine prior to the competition. Many athletes are here to see, watch, and understand the new rules.”
Inui had a flawless execution throughout her “The Life of a Droplet” routine, an expression of her love for the water and her life as an artistic swimmer. Inui talked about her anxiousness to compete in Canada: “I was worried that I did not complete all the elements. I don’t know if my score was any good, because I don’t know the new point system yet.”
Performing “Love Story” for 196.2833 points, hometown favourite Audrey Lamothe claimed the final step on the podium to keep the bronze medal in Canada. According to Lamothe the home crowd made a difference:
“I was so happy that I can compete in front of my family, my friends, in my home country. It gave me a lot of power, a lot of energy. Knowing that people are there for me. Our sport will be better with the new scoring system.”
In the Men Solo Technical, the gold medal went to the reigning World Junior Champion, Spain’s Dennis Gonzalez Boneu, who earned 192.1417 points for his very energetic performance of "Body Expression."
Showing great strength throughout his swim, Kazakhstan’s Eduard Kim, claimed the silver medal with 154.6125 for his brand-new routine “S.O.S. d'un Terrien en Détresse”. Renaud Barral of Belgium won bronze with his 130.0708 point score for "Love to You."
The final event of the day was the Mixed Team Technical which had five entries. The Team events now allow up to two males in the team of eight, however, none of the teams in Markham entered a male in their lineup. Swimming the routine “Thunder”, Japan claimed the gold with their 281.8896 point score. The silver medal and 276.5374 points went tp Team USA for their redemption of "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson.
The team from Israel claimed the bronze with their routine “Birds” swum to the song "Birds of Prey" composed by Arnau Vila.
In this event, the impact of the new scoring system provided excellent feedback for the need of the change. Team USA’s routine had a higher degree of difficulty than Team Japan but the American contingent was unable to surpass Japan for the gold medal due to the superior artistic impression score Japan earned.
Japan’s Megumu Yoshida:
"It was really difficult to comprehend the new system, and it is still hard. I am having fun with the new Artistic Swimming. Winning thew gold is a good start for the season."
USA’s Daniella Ramirez:
"We decided to push our creativity and think how we can use this new base mark type of routine to our advantage. I think it went wonderful, we had a great swim, we felt really strong and powerful, and we can’t way to do it again."
Israel’s Shelly Bobritsky:
"Coaches and athletes did a lot of research on the new system. We worked together with the judges to find interesting movements that will make our routine interesting. We feel good, we wanted the bronze medal and fought till the end to get there."
Day 2 Events
Five events are scheduled for the second of three competition days in Markham, Canada:
Women Solo Free | 12:00 EST
Men Solo Free | 13:30 EST
Mixed Team Free | 14:15 ET
Mixed Duet Technical | 17:30 ET
Women Duet Technical | 18:30 ET
The action in Markham can be followed on live stream and all results will be posted on the World Aquatics website.