FINA Newsletter from Barcelona #6

Newsletter #6 // July 25, 2013

THOMAS LURZ POWERS HIS GERMAN TEAMMATES TO GOLD IN TEAM 5KM EVENT

The team from Germany fueled by 33 year old Thomas Lurz captured the 5km Team event today. Isabelle Harle and Christian Reichert were part of the gold medal winning German team finishing in 52:54.9. Lurz now has a complete set of medals after having previously place second in the 5km on Saturday and third in the 10km on Monday. In the 2011 Shanghai edition the German team, which include Lurz and Harle, placed third.
 
Spyridon Gianniotis led the Greek team to their silver medal performance posting a time of 54:03.3, more than a minute slower than the German champions. Gianniotis won the Olympic gold medal in the 10km at the London Olympic Games and was the winner of Monday's 10km in Barcelona.  Kalliopi Araouzou who finished fourth in both the women's 5km and 10km and Antonios Fokaidis joined in his team's efforts.

Just two tenths of a second back was the team of Brazil which has been swimming extraordinarily well in this harbour. Poliana Okimoto Cintra, the winner of Tueday's women's 10km race was teamed with Allan Do Carmo and Samuel De Bona and the trio swam well enough to earn a bronze medal. Australia was fourth, Italy finished fifth and the USA, the reigning champions from Shanghai placed sixth.

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SI UPSTAGES OLYMPIC CHAMPION IN WORLD 10M DUEL

Fourteen-year-old Yajie Si dethroned defending champion Ruolin Chen, the Olympic gold medallist, in the final of the women's 10m platform at the FINA World Championships. Si, the youngest finalist, and Chen were exactly level after three of the five final dives, having astonishingly recorded precisely the same scores on each effort. Bu Si broke the deadlock in the fourth round as Chen faltered after Si had registered her own lowest score. The teenager then held her nerve in the final series and withstood a rousing challenge from the Olympic champion, whose final dive was not enough to bring her the gold. Chen, who had won her fourth successive world 10m synchro title earlier in the week, had been aiming to become only the second woman to retain the world individual 10m crown and emulate the great Mingxia Fu, who won in 1991 and 1994. It was the sixth Chinese one-two in the event and the seventh Chinese victory in 15 editions at the Worlds.

Si triumphed with 392.15 points, with Chen, four times Olympic champion, having won 10m and 10m synchro gold medals in 2008, less than four points adrift on 388.70. European champion Iulia Prokopchuk of Ukraine scooped the bronze on 358.40, more than 30 points behind the Chinese pair. It was the sixth diving title won by China out of the seven thus far contested in Barcelona. Only the men's 10m synchro, won by Germans Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding, has escaped them.

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RUSSIAN DUO ROCKS DUET FREE FINAL

Using a heavy metal piece by Metallica, defending champion Svetlana Romashina and new partner Svetlana Kolesnichenko from Russia went off the beaten track, delivered a very original programme and finished strongly in the duet free, scoring 97.680. China’s Jiang sisters waved farewell with a second silver-medal winning performance in Barcelona and a total 95.350 points, closely followed by local hopes Ona Carbonell and Margalida Crespi, who secured the bronze with an overall 94.990.

With this win, Romashina pocketed her third straight title in the event (which she won with Natalia Ishchenko in Rome and Shanghai) and fourth title in Barcelona (after winning the solo events and duet technical), lifting Russia’s duet gold total to 11.

Capturing her 15th gold medal (12 of them at Worlds and three at Olympics), Romashina is the third most “golden” synchro swimmer in history behind former teammates Ishchenko (19 gold) and Anastasia Davydova (18 gold). Her incredible roll of honour includes nothing but gold.

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USA, HUNGARY, RUSSIA AND AUSTRALIA WIN WOMEN’S WATER POLO GROUPS

Olympic champion United States of America, Hungary, Russia and Australia have won their groups on the third day of the FINA Women’s Water Polo World Championships at the Bernat Picornell Pool.

The match of the day was undoubtedly the clash between Russia and the Netherlands.  From 7-3 ahead in the second quarter, Russia looked unbeatable but the dogged efforts of Netherlands led to a revival that levelled the match at 7-7 early in the third quarter. Russia took charge again, then the Dutch levelled at 10-10, 11-11 and finally 12-12 inside the final minute — the final score.

The setting sun might have had something to do with it. However, Russia will now play South Africa for a berth in the quarterfinals and Netherlands will have the tougher route by playing World League champion China.

Spain closed the group play, and Group A, with a 20-4 victory over Uzbekistan. The win gave Spain second place and a quarterfinal qualifier against New Zealand.

In Group B action, Australia triumphed over South Africa 14-1 and set up a clash with Uzbekistan. China downed New Zealand 13-5.

In Group C, USA defeated Great Britain 16-4 and Canada drew with world champion Greece 8-8. Canada just needed the draw to take second place.

In Group D, Hungary cruised to a group-winning 18-7 victory over Kazakhstan, who finished third. Italy took second place with a 13-5 margin over Brazil, the fourth-ranked team gaining valuable championship practice ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

USA plays Brazil, Canada takes on Kazakhstan, Hungary faces Great Britain and Italy will front Greece in the qualifiers with the latter the most tantalising matchup.

After the swim-up for the first quarter of the first game, one minute’s silence was staged for the victims of the train crash in the province of Galicia in north-western Spain.

Final points:

Group A: RUS 5, ESP 4, NED 4, UZB 0.
Group B: AUS 6, CHN 4, NZL 2, RSA 0.
Group C: USA 6, CAN 3, GRE 3, GBR 0.
Group D: HUN 6, ITA 4, KAZ 2, BRA 0.

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