Italy earned two golds and a bronze while teams Spain collected one gold, three silvers, and two bronzes on the medal table for the opening World Cup leg in the Chinese capital.

Women's Duet Free

Among the 10 pairs of participants, Shelly Bobritsky and Ariel Nassee from Israel received all the difficulty approved and the highest scores of 225.7613 points. Xu Huiyan, a triple winner in the Beijing leg, had to concede to silver medals with Lin Yanhan, the younger twin sisters of Lin Yanjun, in a total of 221.0156.

"My schedule is very busy this time and I am really exhausted today. All the mistakes I made were because of lack of power and energy," Xu collected victories in the Solo Tech and Solo Free as well as in Team Tech in the last two days.

Lin Yanhan and her elder twin sister Lin Yanjun won the Women's Duet Tech on Saturday. "Xu and I trained together for nearly one month. Xu is a better and stronger swimmer than I am. I need to work harder on my quality of leg and foot movements," said Lin Yanhan.

Mexican pair Daniela Avila Villa and Fernanda Carmona Vazquez celebrated their bronze medals in 201.8510. Rocio Calle Garcia and Cui Xu Isabel Shuang from Spain came fourth at 178.9322.

"We have been worked together for 4 days! Isabel lives in Barcelona and I live in Madrid. Four days to train together and that was the time we had. We did as much as possible. We also got to know each other during our team routines these days and we are close friends now," Calle Garcia said.

Mixed Duet Free

Filippo Pelati and Flaminia Vernice told an ancient Greek mythology Orpheus and Eurydice by winning the second victory for Italy in 175.9655. Pelati clinched its first gold in Men's Solo Free on Saturday.

Viktor Druzin and Amma Pavletsova of Kazakhstan took the silvers 172.4399 and Jordi Caceres Iglesias and Judith Calvo Requena of Spain third 151.5945.

Both at the age of 15, Guo Muxi and Guo Jiayu were the youngest pair in the event and finished fourth with their performance Up is Down.

"We executed better than our training form but we still have a long way to catch up with the top senior swimmers. I gave myself 7.5 points out of 10 because I realized my weakness. I was not physically strong enough and could not do some high difficult movements. I felt more nervous to compete myself than watching my twin brother Muye competing," Guo Muxi said.

Born and raised in Beijing in the year of 2008 Olympic Games, the native Beijing twin brothers started swimming at the Water Cube and always had a special feeling for this place.

"We are familiar with the Water Cube pool very much and have trained and competed many times here. It is like going home. But competing in a World Cup made me different and nervous," Muxi added. 

Guo Jiayu awarded herself 8 points for her brave heart. “I did not feel nervous at all. I knew we were lack of power, difficulty and artistic elements compared with others. But right now I am more clear-minded than before what we should improve in the future,” said Guo.

Team Acrobatic

With the music of Night on Bald Mountain, team Kazakhstan showed their charming ballet in the pool, winning their first gold medal at the opening leg of the World Cup with 213.7801.

"We like the plot and music of the movie very much. We are happy with our performance and the gold medal," Eteri Kakutia smiled.

The second-tire national team of China pretended they were the Eagles flying up and down to the water, coming to the second place in 205.0300 while Australia bagged bronze medals with their Clear-leading performance.

"As the young artistic swimmers, we demonstrated our strength at the World Cup. We learned a lot but also made some mistakes. I believe it is valuable experience to compete in the high-level events, which can inspire us to make progress step by step," said Chinese swimmer Wu Jingyan.

For the Australians, they enjoyed the competition at the venue of 2008 Olympic Games and took the World Cups as preparation for the coming Paris Olympic Games.

"We all love the Water Cube and the pool. It would be a great experience for us in preparation for the Paris Olympics by competing the World Cups. We have been trained very hard since last year and looked forward competing in the next stop of World Cup in Paris," Kiera Walsh Gazzard said. 

With Beijing World Cup Leg Down, Here's What's to Come Later This Year 

The World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2024 series has four legs, including Beijing, Paris (FRA) – 3-5 May, Markham (CAN) – 31 May - 2 June and Super Final in Budapest (HUN) – 5-7 July.