Former world champion Tomoka Sato and new partner Uta Kobayashi marked their international debut as a Duet with an impressive win in the Women’s Free final on the second day of action at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Paris
Sato, who won gold in the Mixed Duet Tech event at Fukuoka 2023 with brother Yotaro, has been on international teams with Kobayashi for over five years.
However, they only began working together as a pair at the end of 2024 and have made strong progress in recent weeks.
They were awarded an overall score of 214.9546 for their ‘Oni’ themed routine, which is based on Japanese folklore.
It saw Sato and Kobayashi finish clear of Switzerland’s Melody Halbeisen and Aimee Michel, who were second with 201.4163 points, while Greek duet Estella Karamanidou and Ilektra Rapti completed the podium places with 182.1747.
After an exciting opening day of World Cup action at the 1924 Olympic Games aquatic venue ‘Piscine Georges Vallerey’ a sell-out crowd arrived ready for to witness further empowering performances in the pool.
With Olympic medallists from China, Great Britain and the Netherlands taking extended breaks from the sport following their efforts at Paris 2024, this event, back in the French capital, presented new pairs with the opportunity to challenge for honours.
It also gave a glimpse of what might be to come later in the year at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, where Japan’s Sato and Kobayashi will be seeking more medals.
The pair have claimed 11 World podium places between them, but this was their first contest as a duet and the judges were clearly impressed with what they witnessed.
“We have been good friend and swimming together on junior team for the past six years so I think our partnership is perfect,” Sato tells World Aquatics.
“The theme is ‘Japanese demon’ and I wanted to express the image of a demon which was released into the world, landing in fire and we came up with the theme together.”
The Swiss duet Halbeisen and Michel were performing to an ‘insect world’ theme, entitled ‘a journey into extraordinary creatures’ and they were able to celebrated an ‘extraordinary’ and rare achievement, by securing their nation silver.
They have been swimming together since they were children, but this was their first senior medal.
“I think we work a lot to get this medal, in and out of training so there are a lot of emotions to get this medal,” Halbeisen told World Aquatics.
Michel continued; “In the moment there are a lot of emotions, because this is our first medal in international competition, so it’s really special.”
“In the long-term it gives us a lot of determination and motivation to see the bigger picture.”
For the Greek duet, their podium finish was also a significant moment.
Karamanidou became a World Youth champion in 2023 and was part of the team with Rapti, who won silver at the same event, but they have been training for less than a month together as a pair.
Their ‘Owls’ themed routine scored 38.5000 for difficulty and they would score over 14 points more than Kazakhstan’s Dayana Jamanchalova and Yasmin Tuyakova, who were fourth.
Later, on the second day of competition in Paris, fans in the venue will be able to witness the Mixed Duet Technical final as well as the much-anticipated Team Technical final, which features Olympic silver medallists USA and Spain, who were third at Paris 2024.