China retain artistic swimming team free title at World Aquatics Championships
China's artistic swimmers impressing judges and spectators at the World Aquatics Championships' team free final at the WCH Arena on July 20.
SINGAPORE – Overcome by emotion at the end of their routine, China's artistic swimming coach Zhang Xiaohuan shed tears of joy as she planted a kiss on the cheek of each and every one of her swimmers.
Her team had scored 348.4779 points to retain their title in the team free category at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) Arena on July 20.
Japan were second (334.7232), with Spain (321.1328) taking home the bronze.
Zhang believes that had she not made three technical changes after the Artistic Swimming World Cup in Xi'an, China in June, they would not have been on the podium.
'Overall I am very happy with our performance and despite having faced some difficulties leading up to this, we managed to pull through,' the 44-year-old said in Mandarin.
China's Xu Huiyan, who won the women's solo technical event a day earlier, said: 'Coach had aimed for us to score 350 points, but we were happy nonetheless.
'Last year (at the WCH in Doha), I was merely a spectator and today I am a competitor. It is a huge change, there is pressure, but the goal is just to do my best.'
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China were the last to take to the pool as they had topped the preliminary round a day earlier, with Spain qualifying in second and Japan third.
Japan had made five changes to the team of eight who finished fifth out of 10 at the Paris Olympics last August, but produced a captivating performance that exuded poise and elegance.
Spain then put on a bold performance, but an error in their eighth hybrid element caused them to drop points. They were awarded a lower score than their preliminary-round result of 329.4288.
Japan captain Tomoka Sato said: 'We were third place yesterday, but second today. Doesn't matter what the result was, I'm very satisfied with our performance.
'Before the Olympics, we had so much pressure back home because artistic swimming is a traditional sport and most people thought that maybe we could get a medal.
'After the Olympics, we changed the team and our mindset changed – that made the difference this time.'
Japan's Sakurako Uchida in action during the World Aquatics Championships' team free final at the WCH Arena on July 20.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Despite losing out on silver after their mistake, Spain's Dennis Gonzalez Boneu believes that it was an 'incredible performance from my teammates'.
The 21-year-old said: 'We made a little mistake and this was not good for us, but I'm happy because we (still managed to) be inside the podium places with this little mistake.
'All the choreography today was better than yesterday and I enjoyed it a lot.
'With this routine, we wanted to show people that 'crazy is normal in our lives' and this choreography shows that you can be crazy, but you also can be a genius.'
The turnout on July 20 was better than previous days, with the 4,800-capacity WCH Arena looking slightly more than half full. While two stands with restricted view were closed, the organisers said that 'close to two thirds of the available ticketed seats were occupied during the team free final'.
In the earlier women's solo free preliminary round, China's Xu scored 238.7737 points to top the list of 12 heading into the final on July 22, when the 19-year-old will be eyeing her third gold at this WCH.
Belarusian Vasilina Khandoshka, who competes as a neutral athlete, qualified second with 238.2762 points, ahead of Spain's Iris Tio Casas (235.3063).
Singapore's Rachel Thean did not qualify for the final after finishing 16th out of 30 with a personal-best 201.2638 points.
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