There were two events today, the Solo and Team Technical Routine, the first competition day of the third leg of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.

Japan’s Yukiko Inui bagged gold for a mark of 90.3361 points in the Solo Technical Routine.

She showed a brilliant performance entitled ’the Earth of the miracle’.

“Elements of the Solo Technical Routine are very difficult, but I cherished not only each of them but also the theme of the performance and all the moves. Looking ahead, I would like to practice further and improve the level of my performance,” Inui said.


Photo by Hiroyuki Nakamura

Evangelia Plantanioti (GRE) grabbed the silver medal with 87.3993 points, prevailing over Linda Cerruti (ITA) by 0.0089 points, a sort of revenge from the FINA World Championship 2017 in Budapest.

"I am really happy with my performance. This year we have the European Championships in Glasgow, which will be the most important for me. Today’s performance will lead to it. I was able to play with the theme and the music,” Evangelia said.

Linda Cerruti (ITA) settled for the third place with 86.3904 points and mentioned her performance.

“It was hard to enjoy my routine because I had to concentrate on the elements too much.”

Six teams participated in the Team Technical Routine. Team Japan made a performance under the theme ‘Phoenix Blazing Dance (Okino Tori no Mai)’.


Photo by Hiroyuki Nakamura

Although Japan won gold with 90.7041 points, Japan’s Head Coach, Masayo Imura, told about what they will have to improve for next time. Team leader Yukiko Inui added:

“We became a new team, so I was concerned and nervous. However, I encouraged my teammate, “Let's try to do our best.” I feel that the execution level is still low. Since each one has their own role, we want to perform in the team free routine to be able to play each role.”

Paula Ramirez of Spain who spoke yesterday at the press conference about her chosen theme was part of the Spanish team that claimed silver today in Tokyo with 89.2206 points.

“We enjoyed a lot and the performance itself was great. The last element and the jumping of the first phase went especially well. We could sufficiently express our energetic parts. Although we were wrong a bit with counting, as a new team we could greatly improve our performance. All we can do is to do our best for the next event,” Paula said.

Tomorrow, the Mix Duet Technical Routine, Duet Technical Routine, Highlight Routine and Solo Free Routine preliminary will be held.