Fernando Diaz del Rio Soto’s earned top spot on the podium at Fukuoka 2023 for his performance in the Technical Male Solo event. Spanish athletes have now featured on the podium for all of the first three artistic swimming events at these World Aquatics Championships. But this was the first time a team member had earned a chance for the Spanish anthem to be heard in the Marine Messe A Aquatic Center.
Men Technical Solo Finals
Diaz del Rio Soto, the 2022 and 2023 Artistic Swimming World Cup Super-Final Champion in this event, performed his routine “The Beauty of Darkness” choreographed to the song “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras. Receiving his highest difficulty score to date, 26.50, Diaz del Rio Soto was awarded a total of 224.5550 points and became the first ever Male Soloist to win at a World Aquatics Championships.
Visibly moved by his success, Diaz del Rio Soto said: “I feel so relieved and happy that the result of so much work has arrived. It is a very gratifying feeling. I'm still in shock. I cannot believe it. I think it is something that only after a few days I will really understand what is happening. I felt a lot of love and warmth from the people around me here and they have given me a lot of strength.”
Kenneth Gaudet’s performance, “Break the Social Norms”, had a declared difficulty of 28.60 points, making it the most difficult routine in today’s competition. Swimming to “Caught in the Fire” by Bazzi, Gaudet totaled 216.8000 points to claim the silver medal, USA’s first medal in Artistic Swimming in a World Aquatics Championships since 2017, when Bill May and Kanako Kitao Spendlove won two bronze medals in the Mixed Duet events. The significance of the medal was not lost on a very emotional Gaudet, who explained: “I want to cry because all I wanted to do was get through the performance with no base marks. I changed my routine right after the preliminary round to get a higher difficulty and I can’t believe I did it. It’s all because of my coaches and team. I’m just so happy. Bill May is here, and he is the reason why I am swimming right now. He’s helped me so much and it’s an honour to be picking up the mantle where he left it.”
Separated by only 0.8 points from second place, Eduard Kim secured the first ever World Championship medal in Artistic Swimming for Kazakhstan. Kim scored 216.0000 points for his performance of “S.O.S. d'un terrien en détresse” swum to music by Kazakhstani singer Dimash.
“It was so difficult to finish the routine, but I did it, and am proud I will make history for my country. All the boys are doing great performances. It is amazing to be part of this sport,” said Kim.
Acrobatics Finals
With the stands full for the Acrobatics final for teams, China presented “Light of Life” choreographed to music by Zhang Yongchun. All week, this crowd-pleasing routine has created a buzz in the stands and on pool deck. Many present were left without words to describe the very original, but very difficult routine. A high declared difficulty is also a risk, and the results can go both ways, as China experienced first hand in the Duet Technical event. Today, however, there was no doubt. China was the best of the field, with 20.950 for difficulty and a total of 238.0033 points. And in claiming first place, China won its first world championship artistic swimming gold medal.
“Today we were able to demonstrate our strength in the performance. I’m happy that we got a higher score than the preliminary round. We were able to demonstrate the power of each member, and we thought that we were able to perform the best routine so far.” XIANG Binxuan
With a total score of 232.4033 points, the team representing the USA claimed the second spot on the podium for the silver medal. The team, which included pioneer Bill May presented a choreography which depicted nicely the power, fearlessness, and courage of “Amazons and Hercules”, the theme of the routine.
It feels incredible! This team works harder than anyone I’ve ever met in my life - they are so inspiring. It’s a brand-new event and so much hard work goes into it, so to come out here and show the world what the USA can do, it’s really something, and we’re only going to step it up from here.
With a fast and furious choreography themed “Formula 1”, Japan scored 220.5867 points to earn a place on the podium and add another medal, bronze this time, from their performances here.
Megumu Yoshida said: “I think it was good that we finished with no ‘base marks’. We were able to swim without any big mistakes, so I think we were able to show what we can do.” “Our theme is ‘Formula 1’ and represents a car’s speed per hour. The world's fastest speed is 372 km/h, so we use 373 monograms on our costumes, which is one higher. This is the end of the acrobatics event, but the team competition will continue from tomorrow, so I will change my mind again and do my best one by one,” added Yoshida.
Women Solo Free Preliminaries
With more than 40 points ahead of the rest of the field, 2022 Female Artistic Swimming Athlete of the year, reigning World Champion, Japan’s Yukiko Inui leads the way heading into the finals scheduled for Wednesday, July 19th.
The other eleven qualifiers include expected and surprising athletes, while some expected final round qualifiers missed out. Due to the new scoring system, and in line with every other event in Fukuoka so far, a high declared degree of difficulty was proven to carry risk and the chance of commensurate reward. The silver and bronze medalists from the Technical Solo event, Austria’s Vasiliki Alexandri and Spain’s Iris Tio Casa qualified in 6th and 7th respectively. In total, eight out of the top twelve from the Technical Solo event also qualified for the Free Solo event final. The newcomers are Croatia’s Matea Butorac, Turkey’s Ece Ungor, San Marino’s Jasmine Verbena, and Korea’s Yoonseo Hur
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
The full results can be found on the World Aquatics Website. The schedule for the Artistic Swimming Championships (local time GMT +9) is as follows:
Tuesday July 18th
- 9:00 Women Duet Free Preliminaries
- 15:00 Men Solo Free Preliminaries
- 19:30 Mixed Team Technical Finals
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