Spain won the artistic swimming technical event on Tuesday at the World Championships in Fukuoka (Japan), where France took 9th place. The Spaniards imposed themselves thanks to a program offering a fusion of Spanish and Japanese music which allowed them to collect 281.6893 points. They edged out the Italians, recent silver medalists at the European Games, who scored 274.5155 points, and the Americans (273.7396).
The United States presented an energetic choreography on the music of “Smooth criminal” by Michael Jackson, with in their ranks Anita Alvarez, the swimmer who had almost drowned at the Worlds last year. The images of his rescue by his trainer had gone around the world. The new scoring system, implemented since this season and which strongly penalizes technical errors, upsets the world hierarchy and makes the competition much more uncertain than in the past.
Thus China and Ukraine, strong nations in artistic swimming, only finished 7th and 11th respectively. The French ballet, whose choreography offered a nod to Thomas Pesquet, took ninth place with 248.1573 points. “It’s a choreography that we all put together, coaches and swimmers,” explained Ambre Esnault. “The theme is inspired by space, it’s very nice to swim in, it’s really fun.”
During their routine, the French missed a technical element, which penalized them by six points. “I felt a good osmosis between us, we were determined to validate (the technical elements). We have not validated everything but compared to the playoffs, there has been a real evolution. But we are still disappointed because the goal has not been reached,” added the 21-year-old swimmer.
Competition continues on Wednesday with the men’s free solo event, where Frenchman Quentin Rakotomalala will defend his chances.
