Hometown favorite Yukiko Inui, who received the 2022 Female Artistic Swimming Athlete of the year award right before the start of the competition this evening at the 2023 Fukuoka WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS, turned around and showed the world why she is deserving of the title. Inui, who is competing in her eight World Championships, presented “The life of a droplet”, an interpretation of her love for the water and life as an Artistic Swimmer, in true Inui style, expressive and elegant, yet clean and sharp. Undefeated in the Solo events for the past year, in front of her home crowd, Inui scored 276.5717 points to win the first gold medal for Japan at these World Championships. Inui, who has been open about her goal to have Japan on the podium in each of the eleven events contested in Fukuoka over the next week, said

Competing in my own country, I felt more nervous than ever before. The audience's cheering helped me a lot, and I'm happy that I was able to finish without a base mark.  I tried raising the difficulty a little and I think it was good and I was able to do it well .When I perform, I'm acting by overlapping my own competitive life with water, and I tried to express that tonight.”
By Yukiko Inui

After receiving one base mark in the preliminary rounds, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri recognized the need to have to execute all declared difficulties to be able to get onto the podium. Swimming to the song “Mount Everest” by Labyrinth, Alexandri showcased her theme “The road to success” to receive the full declared difficulty of 34.5 for a total score of 264.4200 and the silver medal. Alexandri gushed about her performance “I am happy that I didn’t go to base mark. I think nowadays every artistic swimmer is happy if they don’t take base mark.”

Vasiliki Alexandri on being one of triplet sisters: “It’s been amazing to experience all the things that this sport gives us with my family, it’s always a motivation that we work together and to have such big support.”

The bronze medal was earned by Spain’s Iris Tio Casa. Similarly, to Alexandri, Tio Casa’s performance of her choreography “Fire” during the prelims resulted in two base mark scores. However, Tio Casa remained calm and confidently entered the finals with the same high degree of difficulty, 31.05. This time Tio Casa’s execution of the declared difficulty was flawless, as she expressively swam to romantic music composed by Gustav Mahler, called Symphonie Number 1 “Titan” to receive 254.2100 points. Tio Casa explained the pressure of having to be perfect to avoid base mark scores, “I am very happy because my goal was to improve my score and above all, to not get those two base marks that they put on me which is what made me lower the difficulty. I managed not to get them, so I am very happy. I'm really grateful.”

Iris Tio Casa on being a Soloist: “Even though it's a solo performance and even though I swim alone, we are all a team. I'm especially thankful to my teammates for all the support they have given me in every training session and even now they were in the stands supporting me, screaming like crazy - so thank you very much.”

FIREWORKS EXPECTED FOR THE ACROBATICS FINAL

Two preliminary events, the Acrobatics, and the Technical Mixed Duet, were contested earlier today.  The nineteen teams that competed in the spectacular and exciting Acrobatics event for the twelve spots available for Monday, July 17th’s final did not disappoint and may have raised the temperature of the water at the Marine Messe A Aquatic Center several degrees this morning while showcasing their acrobatics moves. The creative choreographies, each with a unique theme, tied together the required seven acrobatic moves from the different groups, airborne, balance, combined and platform, that left the audience gasping and stunned multiple times.

The difference in scores between the first four qualified teams, China, USA, Ukraine, and Japan is small enough to require perfect execution of the declared difficulties to reach the podium.  As was the case during the preliminary round, receiving a base mark for one or more hybrids will be the difference in making it onto the podium or not. The changes in the scoring system requiring the submission of Coaches Cards with a declared difficulty ahead of the competition also allow for the changes in the Coaches Cards from the preliminary to the final round. With nine of the top Twelve teams having performed their routines with their declared difficulty, it is opening the door for strategic moves from the finalists to maintaining or increasing the risk for a higher score by increasing their declared degree of difficulties.

Base Marks Galore in the Technical Mixed Duet

Although there was no shortage of experience and talent, the majority of the sixteen participants received one or more base mark scores.  The entry field featured the 2022 Budapest World Championship silver and bronze medalists Japanese siblings Yotaro and Tomoka Sato, and Chinese duo Yiyao Zhang and Haoyu Shi,  as well as the 2023 World Series Super Final Gold Medalists Spain’s Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Emma Garcia. With the Spaniards leading the way into the finals, the podium will belong to the duo’s who will be able to execute their declared difficulties during their swims.

WOW Moment

Team China’s “Light of Life” caught the attention with the choice of music, which was not a typical Chinese choice. The almost flawless performance of the original and difficult choreography was captivating and a crowd pleaser.

XFactor

Team USA’s line up included Bill May, the pioneer of male Artistic Swimmers and advocate for the inclusion of male Artistic Swimmers in the Olympic Games. This is a wonderful full circle moment, to have May return to competition and be part of the USA routine “Amazons”, which stunningly depicted their power, fearlessness, and courage with extraordinary lifts and throws.

Who to Watch

For both the Acrobatics and the Mixed Duet finals event, Mexico’s representatives are the ones to watch.  The Acrobatic choreography “Aztec Warriors” received one base mark and relatively large synchronization error score.  However, at the 2023 Soma Bay World Cup stop, the Mexicans executed perfectly and claimed the gold medal. Can they do it again?  The Mixed Duet Itzamary Gonzalez Cuellar and Diego Villalobos Carrillo had a flawless swim today and are ranked second ahead of the World Championships medalists from Japan and China.

SCHEDULE & RESULTS

The Top 12 for todays’ events can be found on the World Aquatics Website. The schedule for the Artistic Swimming Championships (local time GMT +9) is as follows:

Sunday July 16th

  • 10:00 Mixed Team Technical Preliminaries
  • 16:30 Mixed Duet Technical Finals
  • 19:30 Women Duet Technical Finals

Monday July 17th

  • 9:00 Women Solo Free Preliminaries
  • 14:00 Men Solo Technical Finals
  • 19:30 Acrobatic Finals

Tuesday July 18th

  • 9:00 Women Duet Free Preliminaries
  • 15:00 Men Solo Free Preliminaries
  • 19:30 Mixed Team Technical Preliminaries

Wednesday July 19th

  • 16:30 Men Solo Free Finals
  • 19:30 Women Solo Free Finals

Thursday July 20th

  • 10:00 Mixed Team Free Preliminaries
  • 19:30 Women Duet Free Finals

Friday July 21st

  • 10:00 Mixed Duet Free Preliminaries
  • 19:30 Mixed Team Free Finals

Saturday July 22nd

  • 10:00 Mixed Duet Free Finals