Mexico brought their country their first-ever gold medal at a world-level artistic swimming event in the Mixed Team Technical, while Chinese Shuncheng Yang topped the podium at his international debut.

The third and final stop of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2023 season got off to a stellar start today in Somabay, Egypt.

Unlike most competitions, in warm and sunny Somabay, the event takes place in the outdoor facility of the state-of-the-art Senzo Sporting Club Olympic Complex.  After her gold medal performance, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri shared:

“It’s nice swimming here, but a little bit different than training as I train in an indoor pool. I felt the wind a little bit, especially in the choreography in the middle part of the routine. Still, it’s a nice feeling and it’s the same conditions for everyone.”
By Vasiliki Alexandri

Solo Technical Women

Image Source: David Balogh/World Aquatics

In a redemption from her Technical routine in Montpellier, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri entered and finished the competition with the highest difficulty score. Receiving 28.40 from the Technical Controllers and a total of 263.8959 points for “The Road to Success”, her own creation, Alexandri made her way to the top of the podium to receive the gold medal.

Alexandri has her sights set on defending her title at the Super Final next month in Oviedo:

“Of course, I have to work on a lot of things as we’ve just begun with the season. There’s work to be done, but I am on a good way and I think – no, it can be – much better.”
By Vasiliki Alexandri

The silver medal went to Spain’s Iris Tio Casa who received 262.9333 points for her routine “Fire” to Mahler’s Symphonie Number 1 “Titan”. Tio Casa’s choreography used the music exceptionally well, highlighting the ups and downs of the rhythm with her movements through the water, keeping the audience mesmerized, and earning her bonus points to increase her declared degree of difficulty to 28.10 points.

Tio Casa was pleased with her own performance.

“I felt very good, very powerful. I think everyone enjoyed my routine. I’m happy, especially with how I performed the first element and the last figure- It makes me very happy and very proud of my swimming.”
By Iris Tio Casa

Last year's bronze medal event winner at the World Junior Artistic Swimming Championships, France’s Oriane Jaillardon showed that she is ready to compete at the senior stage. 

Jaillardon’s declared difficulty for the routine“Madness” was 21.40, however, her on-point execution received several bonus points for a final score of 234.6542 points which earned her the bronze medal.

Solo Technical Men

First-time World Cup participant Shuncheng Yang of China made an impressive debut on the International stage with his routine swum to “The Cello Song” by The Piano Guys.

Yang declared and executed a difficulty score of 27.0, considerably higher than the rest of the field, and received 232.5792 points and the gold medal for his efforts.

Colombian Gustavo Sanchez was able to execute his routine “The End of the World” on music from “Avengers” better than in Montpellier and moved up one step on the podium to claim the silver medal with 209.1375 points. Swimming to the song “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, the gold medalist from Montpellier, Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto scored 208.0417 points to finish right behind Sanchez for the bronze medal.

Mixed Team Technical

Image Source: Nikola Krstic/MB Media/Getty Images

In a very close race for the gold medal, separated only by a little over one point, the only country representing the American Continent, Mexico with “Don’t Stop me now”, came out on top to occupy the top of the podium and claim the gold medal with 270.1584 points.

The silver medalists, Italy, received the identical score for difficulty, but could not surpass Mexico’s Execution and Artistic Impression scores, and settled for second place with 268.8417 points.

Team France, who entered the event with the highest declared difficulty, 30.8, was unable to execute the “Trip to Space” routine flawlessly and finished in third place for the bronze medal with 253.5312 points.

Although the team finished 6th in Montpellier last week, their score then, 30.2 for difficulty and total score of 288.8396, would have been enough to win the event today.

What's Coming Up Next in Artistic Swimming in Somabay

Follow the action in Somabay which can be viewed live and all results will be on the World Aquatics website

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