FINA World Aquatics Gala: Main award goes to Katinka Hosszú, Tusup rewarded
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The best male and female athletes of the year across FINA’s six disciplines were award tonight in Windsor, Canada, right on the riverfront overlooking the Detroit skyline (USA). The awards were handed out on the occasion of the third edition of the FINA World Aqutics Gala Diner which now has a long-time partner Chinese giant Alisports, it was announced at the beginning of the festivities tonight. The partnership will run up to 2025 (more information here).
The yearly gala pays tribute to the greatest aquatic stars of the year. Four additional awards were presented for the best swimming performances of the year as well as two special awards: the FINA award and the Alisports Award who respectively went to Michael Phelps and diving ace Ruolin Chen (CHN).
Winners have been chosen through a selection process which looks at the points collected at the most important FINA events and the Olympics. In swimming, World Records points were also taken into consideration.
he annual ceremony tonight was held in the Colosseum within the Caesar Windsor Hotel, usually used as a concert hall.
The 2016 winners are
Swimming:
Men: Michael Phelps
Women: Katinka Hosszú
Water polo:
Men: Serbia
Women: Unites States
Diving:
Men: Chen Asien
Women: Shi Tingmao
Synchro:
Women: Svetlana Romashina
Women: Natalia Ishchenko
Open water:
Men: Ferry Weertman
Women: Sharon Rouwendaal
High diving:
Men: Gary Hunt
Women: Lysanne Richard
The following coaches were also rewarded on the occasion:
Bob Bowman (coach of Michael Phelps, USA)
Shane Tusup (coach of Katinka Hosszú, HUN)
Dejan Savic (coach of Team Serbia, men’s water polo)
Adam Krikorian (coach of Team USA, women’s water polo
Alex Rochas (coach of Gary Hunt GBR)
Chris Huber (coach of Lysanne Richard CAN)
Marcel Wouda (coach of Ferry Weertman, NED)
Philippe Lucas (coach of Sharon Rouwendaal, NED)
Tatiana Danchenko (coach of Svetlana Romashina and Natalia Ishchenko, RUS)
Liu Ben (coach of Chen Aisen, CHN)
Liu Ben (coach of Shi Tingmao, CHN)
Finally, the FINA Media Award of 2016 was awarded to Clémentine Blondet, from the French sport daily newspaper L’Equipe.