MELBOURNE, Australia, March 24. RUSSIA finished a dominant run in synchronized swimming competition at the FINA World Championships with gold in the team free routine in Melbourne, Australia.
The contingent of Maria Gromova, Natalia Ischenko, Elvira Khasyanova, Olga Kuzhela, Anna Nasekina, Elena Ovtchinnikova, Svetlana Romashina and Anna Shorina tallied 99.000 points for gold based on matching 49.500 marks in both technical merit and artistic impression.
The Spanish squad of Andrea Fuentes Fache, Tina Fuentes Fache, Thais Henriquez Torres, Gemma Mengual Civil, Gisela Moron Rivera, Irina Rodriguez Alvarez, Paola Tirados Sanchez and Cristina Violan Espinosa pocketed silver with 98.500 points (49.000 technical merit, 49.500 artistic impression).
Japan's team of Saho Harada, Naoko Kawashima, Hiromi Kobayashi, Erika Komura, Takako Konishi, Ayako Matsumura, Emiko Suzuki and Masako Tachibana took bronze with 97.334 points (48.667 scores in both technical merit and artistic impression)
Brooke Abel, Katherine Hooven, Christina Jones, Rebekah Kim, Andrea Nott, Annabelle Orme, Jillian Penner and Kimberly Probst represented the U.S. with a fifth-place 95.834 (47.667 technical merit, 48.167 artistic impression).
Click Here to view event results PDF file.
With synchro competition complete, Russia claimed six out of the seven available gold medals to go along with a silver for seven total medals. Spain placed second with four silvers and two bronze for six medals, while Japan took third with two silver and four bronze for six medals as well.
Meanwhile, France garnered one gold, while the United States took home a bronze.
