Kazakhstan enjoyed a historic night in Doha as they captured their first-ever gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships with a sensational artistic swimming title.
Nargiza Bolatova and Eduard Kim are the history-makers as they emerged victorious from a tense evening of Mixed Duet Technical action at the World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024.
Cheng Wentao and Shi Haoyu were hoping to deliver the People's Republic of China’s second gold of the day following the Asian country’s victory in the Mixed Team Acrobatic. But an error in the final element of their routine dashed those hopes as Bolatova and Kim were confirmed as champions.
Mixed Team Acrobatic Title Defence for China
China came out on top in a nail-biter earlier in the day, overcoming strong challenges from Ukraine and the United States of America to retain the Mixed Team Acrobatic crown at the Aspire Dome.
A mere 1.9467 points separated the top three with the Chinese team just doing enough to hang on to the title.
Unlike China, Ukraine and the USA have yet to seal their place in the team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics and they underlined their qualification credentials with excellent showings that pushed the defending champions all the way.
Ukraine moved ahead of the USA to take spot only for China to clinch gold with the final performance of the competition.
China, who qualified for Paris 2024 courtesy of their success at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, produced a display packed full of energy and energetic to win over the judges.
Performing their routine “Light of Life” to a degree of difficulty of 23.950, China barely put a foot wrong with their brilliant choreography.
China claimed victory with a score of 244.1767, including 156.7767 for elements and 87.4000 for artistic impression.
“This gold medal is kind of a surprise for us,” said China’s Wang Liuyi.
“We did a great performance today. Our coach just told us to enjoy the performance. I think we did. We showed our best version.”
It was enough to take the gold from Ukraine who finished with a total of 243.3167 after registering 156.8667 for elements and 86.4500 for artistic impression.
The Ukrainian team included 15-year-old flier Oleksandra Goretska who performed excellently under pressure to their “Time to Shine” routine.
“It is our first step towards the Olympic Games,” said Maryna Aleksiiva, “We are very grateful for this result.”
While a teenager starred for Ukraine, a 43-year-old legend of artistic swimming propelled the USA to a medal. Bill May helped the USA rise from sixth after the preliminaries to third.
Performing to the theme “Amazons and Hercules”, the USA set themselves the highest degree of difficulty of 24.600 and delivered, scoring 242.2300.
“It feels amazing to have a medal on my neck,” said May, “We had to switch one member of the team before the start so we were a bit nervous. We came to give a show. We acted as one.”
Historic Mixed Duet Technical Gold for Kazakh Pair
Kazakhstan upset the odds to take gold in the Mixed Duet Technical following a brilliant performance from Bolatova and Eduard.
Sitting fourth after the preliminaries, Bolatova and Kim pulled out all the stops to nail their routine to the theme of Tim Burton’s animated musical fantasy Corpse Bride.
They produced a wonderful interpretation, demonstrating fantastic musicality and impressive technical skills throughout, scoring 228.0050 including 133.0550 for elements and 94.9500 for artistic impression.
Kim made history for Kazakhstan at Fukuoka 2023 when he secured their maiden medal at the World Championships with Men Solo Technical bronze.
The 18-year-old and his partner Bolatova then stood and waited anxiously as the pairings from Spain, Italy and China all picked up basemarks in the final elements to earn them the title.
“I cannot explain what I feel, it is a mixture of everything,” said Bolatova, “I think this medal is a great surprise to all of us. We made history today with this gold. I cannot believe this is happening, the emotions are very strong.”
Kim added: “Coming to Doha, we did not expect that we will become the world champions. It is a dream – we did not even think we would win a medal.”
Cheng and Shi performed to the highest difficulty in the field with 34.050 but they were unable to deliver a complete performance to their routine “Unstoppable”, scoring 223.3166.
It is the second successive year the Chinese pair have finished second after taking silver at Fukuoka 2023.
“We feel a little bit sad for only winning second place,” said Shi, “This is like a warning for both of us.”
The podium was rounded off by Mexicans Miranda Barrera Jimenez and Diego Villalobos Carrillo who came away with bronze despite receiving one basemark.
Barrera Jimenez and Villalobos Carrillo, who were ranked fifth after the preliminaries, overcame an early error to score 217.5192 following a fine display to the theme “Hard Rock”, performed to Paranoid by Black Sabbath.
It was enough to secure third spot as Italians Giorgio Minisini and Susanna Pedotti and Spaniards Dennis Gonzalez Boneu and Mireia Luna Hernandez made costly mistakes.
“This result took us by surprise, because we had a certain basemark on our routine and didn’t expect that we would end so high on the ranking table,” said Villalobos Carrillo, “But without doubt we have worked very hard. We had no rest and no holidays ahead of the World Championships because we wanted to get a result like this.”