As we previously reported, Budapest has the honour to host two prestigious swimming competitions this year. These are the 16th FINA Artistic Swimming World Series and the National Senior, Junior, and Masters Artistic Swimming Championships. Mszusz.hu reports about the FINA World Series that took place between the 18th and 20th of May. Naturally, the location was the Duna Arena, which is considered the most modern swimming complex around the globe today.

May 18th – Competition Day 1

Duet Technical Routine

1. Anastasia Savchuk, Yelizaveta Yakno (UKR) 90.3170
2. Linda Cerruti, Constanza Ferro (ITA) 88.0272
3. Anna-Maria Alexandri, Eirini Alexandri (AUT) 85.2773

The programme began with the Duet Technical Routine where the Ukranian Anastasia Savchuk and Yelizaveta Yakno won a gold medal. They were the only ones who reached 90 points. They also overtook the Italian duet, Linda Cerruti and Constanza Ferro. The 16-year-old Alekseeva twins, Marina and Vlada, finished in the third place. However, according to the world series’ rules, the twins did not get the third title at the world cup because they have the same nationality as the winners. Therefore, only the duet with the higher points could get the medals. However, they were still given medals by the organisers of another kind. To sum up, the Austrian Alexandri duo got the third place officially.

Free Combinations

1. Ukraine 92.7000
2. Spain 90.2000
3. Israel 80.5333
4. Hungary 77.3333

The Ukrainian competitors also succeeded in the second part of the day. They received golden medals at the category of Free Combinations, too. One of the most memorable moments of their performance was when one group threw a member to the top of the other group’s base formation. The Spanish team was satisfied because they also received more than 90 points and they reached their goal of testing how their group works since some new members got into the team this year. Even though the Hungarian team was expecting a medal, the Israeli team was way better this day. Anna Tarres, the Spanish trainer of the Israeli team, is an infamously harsh and strict trainer. Right after her team received the medals, she made them go back into the pool and have one-hour training.

May 19th – Competition Day 2

Team and Solo Technical Routines

Team Technical Routine
1. Russia 94.6289
2. Ukraine 92.0168
3. Italy 88.3951

Solo Technical Routine
1. Varvara Subbotina (Russian) 94.1510
2. Yelizaveta Yakno (Ukrainian) 91.0814
3. Linda Cerruti (Italian) 88.5434

The famous Russian swimmers introduced themselves right away this day, dominating the competition, as they always did in the last two decades. They got their gold medals in both the Team and the Solo Technical Routine categories. Their fantastic performances were worth points higher than 94 each. One of the biggest questions in the solo category was whether the young Russian super talent, the 17-year-old Varvara Szubbotina, can beat the routinist Ukranian swimmer Yelizaveta Yakno. Finally, she gave an outstanding performance at her very first adult competition. She managed to get many points; she got more than 90 at the end of the day. Three Hungarian swimmers took part in this category: Szofi Kiss ended up being the 8th, while Luca Rényi got the 12th place, and Adél Fodor followed her in the 13th place.