The third and final stop of the World Aquatic Artistic Swimming World Cup 2023 season will be taking place in the Senzo Mall Sporting Club Official Olympic Complex.
Taking place in Somabay's neighbouring city of Hurghada, the three-day artistic swimming event in Egypt runs from the 13-15 May.
The Artistic Swimming World Cup is part of the World Aquatics Festival, an event bringing together the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming Cup and the World Aquatics Beach Water Polo Qualification Tournament for the ANOC World Beach Games Bali 2023.
Artistic Swimming's competition venue is a modern multi-sport complex ideally situated beside the peninsula of Somabay. Surrounded by three sides of the Red Sea, the location is a prime destination on the eastern seashores of Egypt. Once a small fishing village, Hurghada today has transformed into one of Egypt’s most popular destinations for vacationers.
After two successful editions of the 2023 Artistic World Cup in Markham, Canada and Montpellier, France, over 130 of the best artistic swimmers will be competing in the eleven events scheduled to take place.
With the implementation of the new scoring system, which is designed to make the sport more objective and transparent, and to give athletes and coaches more control over their scores, the results of the first two editions have been unpredictable and surprising.
The members of the AQUA Rules Support Team have been analyzing all results and are continuously observing to continue improving the system. The performances in Somabay this weekend are expected to continue the trend as athletes and coaches are learning and getting more comfortable with the new system.
Who - And What - To Expect In Somabay
With more than twenty-five participants in each of the Female Solo events, that include only half of the medal winners from last week in Montpellier, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri, Spain’s Iris Tio Casa, and first-time winner Viktoria Reichova of Slovakia. It will be exciting to watch the changes in routines, the strategy with the difficulties, and the execution of what the athletes declared on the coaches' card.
In the Male Solo events, 2023 ASWC medal winners Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto of Spain, Kazakhstan’s Eduard Kim, Colombia's Gustavo Sanchez and Renaud Barral from Belgium are all present to continue their quest for the top scores. All four also compete in the Mixed Duets events.
The Colombian duo, Sanchez and Jennifer Cerquera Hatiusca, won two bronze medals in France, while Diaz del Rio Soto (ESP) paired with Mireia Hernandez Luna took home one silver. Kim (KAZ) and Nargiza Bolatova and Barral (BEL) paired with Lisa Ingenito took home a bronze medal from Markham.
The previous World Cup 2023 medal winners in the event are not amongst the close to twenty duets entered in the Technical and Free events, guaranteeing that the podium will be first-time medal winners this season.
Top eight finishers last week in Montpellier included France’s Anastasia Bayandina and Eve Planeix, Italy’s Sarah Maria Rizea and Flaminia Vernice, Netherlands Bregje de Brouwer and Marloes Steenbeek, and the Swiss duo of Emma Grosvenor and Margaux Varesio.
The Team events feature first-time participants this season: Egypt and Mexico. Hometown favourite Egypt will compete in all three of the Team events. Mexico, meanwhile, competes in the Acrobatic and Mixed Technical team events. The only previous World Cup 2023 medal winner in the field is the Italian Mixed Free Team, which claimed the bronze in Montpellier.
What's on the Line|Artistic Swimming Super Final Qualification
For the athletes, this final leg of the Artistic Swimming World Cup is the last opportunity to score points to qualify for participation in the Super Final of the World Cup, slated to take place from 2-4 June in Oviedo, Spain.
National Federations are ranked in four categories: Solo (Technical & Free), Duet (Technical & Free), Mixed Duet (Technical & Free), and Team (Technical, Free & Acrobatic).
The first twelve ranked National Federations in each category are allowed to take part in the Super Final in Oviedo.
Follow the action in Somabay which can be viewed live and all results will be on the World Aquatics website.
Saturday, 13 May
- 17:00 EET Solo Technical Women and Solo Technical Men
- 19:45 EET Mixed Team Technical
Sunday, 14 May
- 9:30 EET Solo Free Women and Solo Free Men
- 17:00 EET Duet Technical Women and Mixed Duet Technical
- 19:45 EET Mixed Team Free
Monday, 15 May
- 17:00 EET Duet Free Women and Mixed Duet Free
- 19:45 EET Acrobatic Routine and Gala