World artistic swimming champion Iris Tio Casas continued a stunning run of success at her home World Cup by adding two further gold medals to her collection on the second day of competition in Pontevedra, Spain.
Last year the Olympic bronze medallist became the first athlete in the history of the sport to attain global titles across solo, duet, mixed duet and team disciplines during their career.
It boosted her profile, but the 23-year-old admits that success has further increased the pressure she now feels to perform consistently at the summit of the sport. Not that it appeared to impact the Spaniard in front of partisan spectators in Pontevedra.
After claiming Solo Free gold and victory as part of her nation’s dazzling Team Technical line-up on Friday, Tio Casas maintained her 100% winning run by securing the Women’s Duet Free crown, alongside Lilou lluis Valette, followed by the Solo Tech title.
“Every time I perform a new routine in public, in the competition, I gain a lot of experience as it’s very different from swimming it in training,” Tio Casas tells World Aquatics.
"I have already learned so much just from swimming today, experience with the judges and the public and I got a lot of confidence"
In the Women’s Duet Free Final Tio Casas and Lluis Valette attained a colossal overall score of 297.2209 points, to finish 21.0508pts ahead of Romane Lunel and Laelys Alavez, who were part of France’s Team Technical bronze medal-winning line-up on Friday.
“It was a little bit different in duet [compared to the Team Tech event], but we had good preparations and we worked a lot this year so it’s really good to finish with a silver medal,” Lunel told World Aquatics.
“We of course want more though, so next time we hope it will be gold.”
Claiming third, ahead of the experienced USA duet Anita Alvarez and Jaime Czarkowski were Mexico’s Maria Fernanda Arellano Germes and Itzamary Gonzalez Cuellar.
Their Medusa-themed routine attained an overall score of 276.0209pts, just marginally less than that attained by the French silver medallists (276.1701pts).
Joining Tio Casas (262.8650pts) on the Women’s Solo Tech podium, in what was the concluding event on the second day of competition in Pontevedra, was regular World Cup medallist Vasilina Khandoshka (260.2383pts) and Italy’s Enrica Picolli (243.6850pts).
Picolli, who is a six-time World Championships medallist, was delighted with her performances as it marked her first-ever World Cup podium in a Women’s Solo Technical contest.
“I think it [the event] is organised perfectly, from the hotels to the transportation and catering in the swimming pool between the competition in these three days,” Picolli told World Aquatics. “It has been full of competition, you compete almost four a day, so it’s very difficult, but with such a great organisation it is so easy.”
“Regarding my performance, we are improving, but I think we will make some further improvements and some changes for Toronto [World Cup Super Final in June].”
After a highly entertaining – and winning – Team Technical display by the hosts on Friday the home supporters were anticipating another high-class performance from their assembled stars in the Team Free Final. Once the eight countries had delivered their routines, those spectators were able to head home happy.
While Italy and Canada both recorded performances with a higher degree of difficulty, 75.1250 and 70.1775 respectively versus 63.2920 from the eventual winners, Spain were a class apart.
Their ‘La Locura’ themed routine, which translates into English as ‘insanity’ was awarded 257.5013 points, with Italy 10.3025pts back and Canada 28.1334pts short of the winning total.
“It’s incredible,” Olympic bronze medallist Alisa Ozhogin told World Aquatics.
“During the exercise we were listening to the public and even at the end when we were so exhausted the people and their cheering helped me kick until the final. When I finished I started crying because of the emotion of all the support.”
Ranjuo Tomblin has established himself as one of the strongest male artistic swimmers in the world over the last two years and, after surprisingly missing out on a podium finish in the Men’s Solo Technical final on Friday, the Briton returned to form 24 hours later.
The 20-year-old, performing a routine which represents ‘a journey from struggle to power, wowed audiences and judges alike, attaining an overall score of 244.4588pts.
That was enough to take a clear victory in the Men’s Solo Free Final by 10.5837pts, over second-place finisher Eneko Sanchez Aguilar, who also took solo silver 24 hours earlier.
"Every time we come to Spain the audience always bring the vibes and it’s definitely the loudest audience in the World Cup tour with everyone supporting you"
16-year-old Sanchez Aguilar added that the “cheers and support from the crowd” helped his performance, while he also heaped praise on the assembled field who he described as “really cool people.”
Completing the podium places and following up his Men’s Solo Tech gold on Friday with a second-successive top-three result was Italy’s Filippo Pelati, who scored 211.0150pts.
The final day of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Pontevedra, Spain, will see the assembled field contest three final medal events: Women’s Duet Technical, Mixed Duet Free and Team Acrobatic.