The second day of the inaugural World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup taking place at the Markham Pan Am Centre in Markham, Canada continued with most of the competitors debuting routines specifically created to work with the new scoring systems. Each of the five Day 2 events positively supported the sporting innovation underway in artistic swimming.
Probably the most exciting moment occurred during the Women's Duet Technical during the Israel routine. The pairing of Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee executed with near flawlessness the highest degree of difficulty routine to score 27.4500 and win the event. Nassee on the historical implications of this gold medal:
“It is an amazing feeling. We have only been working together for less than one year, We have not even dared to dream about a gold medal. This was a shock for us, and I feel like I am going to wake up from a dream. Maybe I will get recognized now in Israel.”
At the conclusion of the five events which were contested, Japan tops the medal table with the addition of two gold and one bronze to the gold and silver from the first day events.
Solo Free Women
The reigning World Aquatics Champion in this event, Japan’s Yukiko Inui, once again kept the audience mesmerized by her grace and beauty in the water as she performed her routine themed “Giant Snake” to music created by Toshiyuki Matsumoto. The routine allowed Inui to creatively express the contrast between bewitching and violence and earned her the gold medal with 319.8291 points. Inui indicated that she is looking forward to improving over the next months towards the World Aquatics Championships - Fukuoka 2023 where she aims for a podium position:
“I am satisfied with my swim but feel that I need more practice with the new routine and scoring systems. I hope to have the opportunity to compete in more World Cup events, to enhance my performance.”
The silver medal was won by Spain’s Lilou Lluis Valette. Not faced by the fact that she is only sixteen years old and a first-time participant at a World Senior event, Lluis Valette performed her “The Theory of Everything” themed choreography to music Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson for a solid score of 240.1041.
After claiming the bronze medal yesterday in the Solo Technical, Canada’s Audrey Lamothe repeated the feat in the Solo Free with her routine "Román Gods " which scored 224.5041 points. Lamothe shared her thoughts on the World Cup event at home:
“It is fun to compete at the World Cup events, and Canada will be traveling to other World Cups this year. But right now, I am very happy to be able to compete in Canada in front of my family and friends, I am very lucky to be at home.”
Solo Free Men
As expected, the experienced and talented Mixed Duet World Aquatics Champion, Italy’s Giorgio Minisini, would be the one to beat in the Men Solo Free event. Minisini’s choreography, a tribute to Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, is a technically challenging routine that was very exciting to watch.
Minisini's score of 296.1209 earned him gold. Minisini indicated that the change in the sport has brought new excitement to the competitions:
“It was nice to compete again on the international stage after Budapest. I am happy to be here, and I wanted to try this new system. It is a change for our sport, but for the better. There is a lot of work to do. We all have to face the challenge and adapt and find our way.”
Spain’s Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto, last year’s Super Final silver medalist, scored 168.4000 points for his routine “The Elements, Water, Fire and Earth” to claim the silver medal in Markham. Diaz del Rio Soto is looking forward to the rest of the Cups for 2023 to continue improving:
“I did okay, but I can improve a lot. I know I will be better at the next one. We are going to compete in all of the World Cups. This is a very important event because we are here to really start getting a feel for how the new systems work.”
Adding another bronze medal to his collection, the 2022 Junior World Championships bronze medalist, Kazakhstan’s Eduard Kim, earned 149.7541 points from the judges for his performance to occupy the third spot on the podium.
“This was very hard work, this was my first Solo Free routine and it was hard. I like coming to the World Cups because I see more professional people, watching the events and learning from the others.”
Team Free
With only one entry in the Team Free event, Japan was awarded the gold. The Japanese didn't play if safe, and their routine “Chess” scored an impressive 353.4208 points, with 31.5500 awarded for difficulty and a 231.0708 score indicative of the almost flawlessly executed high degree of difficulty routine. Indicative of their quest for perfection, Japan’s Megumu Yoshida reacted to the high scores received:
“We did our best, but there was a big error in our routine, but we noticed it and we will fix it. It was important for us to show our strength to the world in Canada, and also, we were anticipating to seeing what the other teams were doing.”
Mixed Duet Technical
The Chinese duo of Yiyao Zhang and Haoyu Shi, the World Aquatics Championships bronze medalists last summer in Budapest, performed their routine “Unstoppable” to music that allowed the pair to express the strength and speed of the younger generation. With 236.2292 points, the pair claimed China’s first medal in Markham, a gold. Like so many athletes in Markham, Zhang and Shi are still figuring out how the new way can fit their routines:
“Today’s performance was better than any of the training we have done. We earned the full difficulty we declared. We plan to upgrade the difficulty of our routines for the future Cups we will attend.”
Scoring 193.6417 points while swimming to music by At Vance, Spain’s Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Judith Calvo Requena won the silver medal for their “Winter” themed choreography.
The bronze medal went to the pair from Kazakhstan, Nargiza Bolatova and Eduard Kim, with their routine scoring 177.3167 points.
Duet Technical
For the majority of Artistic Swimmers, the Duet event is their best chance to qualify for the Olympic Games. This is validated by the fact that in all competitions leading up to next year's Paris 2024 Games, the Duet events have the highest number of entries. Tonight, in Markham, eighteen talented Duets competed for one of three positions on the podium.
The results of this event brought the entire audience in Markham to their feet. By allowing participants to declare the degree of difficulty of their routines prior to competing, and subsequently being judged on their flaws, an opportunity for objectivity and fairness to all participants has been created.
The favourites going into the event were World Aquatics Championships silver medalists in both the Technical and the Free Duet events from Budapest 2022 were Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva of Ukraine. The twin sisters were the first to compete and immediately set the bar for the rest of the field with a score of 231.6543 points.
“We like going first, it went by fast and now we can enjoy the others, no more waiting. It was our first time with the new rules, and that part is still very difficult. It was hard to participate with the new elements in the Technical Routine.”
The score remained the highest, but in the end, the Ukrainians settled for the silver medal when the pair from Israel became the first to prove to the Artistic Swimming community that the future of the sport looks even more competitive. Israel’s Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee scored 233.4292 points to take home the event gold. The duo's “Gypsy Dance” routine swam to a compilation of Romany Music. Bobritsky openly admitted their fears about the high degree of difficulty of their routine:
“We are happy, but we were afraid that something would go wrong, because the difficulty of this routine was so high. And we just did everything we trained to keep it together. The changes are for the best, it is more objective. We all know our difficulty before you compete. The scores will be more fair.
Performing their brand new routine “Mysterious”, Japan's Moe Higa, and Mashiro Yasunaga scored 204.1083 points to bring the bronze medal back to Japan. Yasunaga indicated that regardless of the nerves, their inexperience as a duo, and all the changes in the sport they are satisfied with their results:
“The performance we felt very good, however the scores we did not expect receiving base points for some elements. We were very nervous, and we were not sure about parts of the scoring system and how that worked in our routine. Now we feel we have learned from being here and our routine will improve and be better next time.”
Day 3 Events | Final Day from Markham
On the third and final day of competition in Markham, Canada there will be three competitive events along with the always fun Gala scheduled as the closing.
Mixed Duet Free | 10:00 ET
Women Duet Free | 11:15 ET
Acrobatic | 15:00 ET
Gala Show | 16:30 ET
The action in Markham can be followed globally on the live stream and all results will be posted on the World Aquatics website.