The Combination Free Final was performed in front of a full arena as the 11 nations wowed the crowds with their acrobatic stunts, lifts and jumps.
Russia were again the stand out performers as the 10-girl team took to the water with a fast-paced routine. The judges’ score of 92.833 was enough to win them the gold medal and retain the title that they took last year.
Of their performance the Russian team said: ‘We are pleased with the gold medal. We think the scores could have been better but we are happy. I believe the routine went to plan. It is a new team and it has been great to get our first gold medal.’
This puts them in a good position to once again complete the clean sweep of titles they managed last year; they currently lead going into the tomorrow’s Figures leading in the Solo, Duet and Team events.
Ukraine’s balletic performance earned them high marks to take the silver medal, bettering last year’s fifth position. The score of 91.000 came as a surprise to the team who have been training together for one year;
‘We feel really good, we didn’t expect that score so to get the silver is really exciting.’
The bronze medal went to Spain whose colourful routine excited the audience early on. But, their score of 89.167 wasn’t enough for them to retain the silver won at last year’s event;
‘We didn’t feel too confident going in because to perform first is very difficult. We expected silver so we are a bit disappointed, but tomorrow will hopefully be much better.’
Fourth position went to last year’s bronze medallists, Greece, whose musical routine earned a score of 88.500 that landed them just outside of the medals.
The British Gas Synchronised Swimming team’s Combination Routine earned them 76.666 points as they were cheered on by their home crowd. Anya Tarasiuk, whose injury had prevented her from competing in yesterday’s Free Team Preliminary, was able to perform with the rest of her squad members to earn eighth place for the Brits.
