At the last three editions of the FINA World Championships, Kazan in 2015, Budapest in 2017 and Gwangju in 2019, the Top 7 results in the Duet Free event have been identical. However, Artistic Swimming at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary truly has been illustrative of the event slogan “Make History.." Today’s Top 7 in the open-air venue at the Hajos Alfred Swimming Complex on Margaret Island, featured three newcomers with their best results to date. Austria reached the podium, Greece finished in sixth, and Mexico finished in seventh place, while returners, China, Ukraine, and Italy all moved up from their previous best results in the Duet Free event.
Duet Free Final
Chinese twin sisters Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi swimming together for the first time as a duet at a World Championship received 95.5667 points to win the third gold medal for China. After finishing second at the last five World Championships, the twenty-five-year-old sisters put China on the top of the podium with their performance of “Snakes” swum to a mix of music from several different artists.
Liuyi Wang: “We did so well in our performance, and I enjoy this competition. We really like Budapest. I think it is a lucky place, because of the weather and the nature of this country. We were really satisfied with our performance.”
Ukraine's Aleksiiva sisters, Maryna and Vladyslava scored 94.1667 points for their “Scramble to Position” routine to claim the fourth silver medal for Ukraine. Like the gold medalists, China’s Wang sisters, this is the first time that the Aleksiiva sisters represent their country, Ukraine, at a World Championships in the duet event. With bronze medal finishes in 2015, 2017 and 2019, this podium finish is the first time for the Ukraine to win a medal in one event in four consecutive editions of the FINA World Championships.
Maryna Aleksiiva: “We felt a little excited, just finished this programme and felt a little bit shocked. We are very proud of our performance; it is the loveliest program of the whole competition. It was not the last event we participated in, so it will be just harder.”
Showcasing their incredible sister connection throughout their performance, the Austrian pair of triplet sisters, Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini Alexandri swum the “Evil Dolls” routine to a collection of creepy music to score 92.8000 points for their second bronze medal this week. Prior to this podium finish, the best finish for the sisters and for Austria was a ninth place finish in the 2017 World Championships.
Anna-Maria Alexandri: “We are so happy, we was waiting for this competition so much. We love to be here, we feel like at home and love all these facilities. This score is great for us, it is our personal best.”
Highlight Preliminary
On Saturday, June 25th, Ukraine, the reigning World Championship gold medal winner in the Highlight event, will be seeking to join China and Japan as multiple gold medal winners at this edition of the World Championships. Scoring 94.2333 in the preliminary round, the team from the Ukraine is the strong favorite and will be the one to beat. The teams representing Italy and Spain, with 91.6667 and 91.3667 points respectively, will try to do just that. Mexico, Greece, USA, Canada, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Switzerland, Hungary, and Slovakia all earned another opportunity to present their routines in front of the judges a second time.
The program for Friday June 24th includes the preliminary round for the Duet Mixed Free event and the Team Free final event. Full results of the Championships can be found here as well as information for the live broadcasts.