This is how the phenomenal World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championship went down – PHOTOS!

As reported earlier, the spectacular World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championship was organised in Hungary this year. The event took place in the Duna Aréna in Budapest, between July 18th and 22nd.

Day 1

The 1st day of the 16th FINA World Junior Synchronised Swimming Championship kicked off with a great start, not necessarily for Hungarians, though. According to mszusz.hu, the Russian Varvara Subbotina stole the limelight by winning the solo technical event as well as the freestyle performance in the evening, gaining two gold medals for the Russian team all in the same day.

Varvara Subbotina, gold medalist
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Freestyle performance results:

1. Varvara Subbotina (Russia) – 93.5667 points
2. Marta Fiedina (Ukraine) – 90.7667 points
3. Mana Fujiwara (Japan) – 88.3333 points.

During the opening ceremony, students of the Experidance Dance Academy gave a spectacular performance next to the pools, while ‘mermaids’ mesmerised the audience in the water.

Mermaids
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Among the people giving speeches was Lisa Schott, the Canadian Ambassador of the National Swimming Association’s synchronised swimming technical jury,

who emphasised the high quality of the water sports events organised in Hungary – the number of which is on the rise.

Day 2

In the centre of the second day were all the duos. 35 of them battled in the freestyle program this past Thursday, including the Hungarian Janka Dávid and Szabina Hungler. The girls finished with great results on the top of the list of the semi-finals.

Hungarian duo
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Their achievement is remarkable considering they managed to score more points and a better place among European countries than just three weeks before, during the Tampere European Championship.

Although they did not get into the finals this year and finished at 14th out of the 33 duos, the progress they made in a short time between the two competitions is remarkable and an indication of their continuous improvement. The gold medal went to the Russian team again.

Duo event
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The freestyle duo event results are as follows:

1. Alina Mantulenko, Mihail Vassiliev (Russia) – 85.1333 points
2. Csang Ji-Gao, Sze Hao-jü (China) – 81.4667 points
3. Miyauchi Kana, Iwasaki Dzsimma (Japan) – 80.7667 points.

Day 3

Friday, the third day of the Championship was relatively chill, as there was an award ceremony in only one category – the group technical event. Unsurprisingly, the gold medal went to the Russian team, but the Hungarians should be proud of their firm place as 14th, too.

Group performance
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Group technical results:

1. Russia – 92.7342 points
2. Ukraine – 90.3331 points
3. Japan – 89.0176 points.

Day 4

The organisers made the decision late Friday evening to make the event free for the last two days, so the spectacular performances could be enjoyed live if you received the information fast enough. In the freestyle group event category, the Hungarian team ended up being 14th, just missing the final 12, despite scoring 1.5 points more than in the European Championship a few weeks ago.

Group performance
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Sándor Balogh, the president of the Synchronised Swimming Association as well as of the World Championship Organising Committee, congratulated the girls and emphasised how talented they are and how impressive their skills already are, while also pointing out that synchronised swimming has a rather subjective point-awarding system that basically allows anything to happen.

Group performance
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Group freestyle results:

1. Russia – 93.6667 points
2. Ukraine – 91.8000 points
3. Japan – 90.5667 points.

Also important to mention that there were male participants as well, considering men have been allowed to join the sport in 2015, and boys aged 15-18 participated in this year’s World Championship, too.

Mixed duo
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Mixed duo
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Day 5

Sunday was the concluding day of the Championship. The last day proved to be lucky for the Hungarian team, as they succeeded in getting to the final for the first time ever in the category of free variation group performances. The closest the Hungarian girls got to the finale was two years ago, where they just missed it by finishing in 13th place.

Group performance
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Although the girls did not win but came in as 10th and the gold medal went to Russia again, they definitely should be proud of their performance and all they have achieved in these magical five days.

In the end, the medal table was as follows (gold, silver, bronze):

1. Russia – 9 0 0
2. Ukraine – 0 7 0
3. China – 0 2 1
4. Japan – 0 0 8

Group performance
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All in all, the event was a great success. As sportmindig.hu reports it, FINA President Cornel Marculescu found everything satisfactory and stated that

“The World Synchronised Swimming Junior Championship was another well-organised event, falling in line with the rest of the events so far taking place at this location [at the Duna Aréna].”

For more news, check out this article about Hungarian swimmers meeting the Pope.

Featured image: facebook.com/pg/szinkronuszas

Source: mszusz.hu, origo.hu, sportmindig.hu