Russia’s Natalya Ishchenko won a record 18th career synchronized swimming gold medal at the world championships on Wednesday in the solo free routine.
Ishchenko’s program scored 97.2333 points to beat China’s Huang Xuechen by 1.5333 points. The bronze went to Ona Carbonell of Spain on 94.9 points.
Ishchenko’s win moves her one ahead of her longtime duet partner Svetlana Romashina, who has 17 world championship gold medals.
Photo: AFP
“I actually try not to count how many medals I have,” Ishchenko said. “Each final is a big responsibility and I approach them with real seriousness and today I was really worried.”
A potential 19th career world gold awaited Ishchenko yesterday, when she and Romashina were to compete in the duet free routine.
Ishchenko took a break after the 2012 Olympics to raise a family and the world championships were her first major competition since her comeback.
Photo: AFP
“I knew everyone was going to be looking at me, that there’d be focused attention on how I do after two years away,” said Ishchenko, who is aiming to add to her three Olympic gold medals at next year’s games in Rio de Janeiro.
Russia have won four of the five synchronized swimming gold medals so far at the world championships in Kazan, with the host nation’s only defeat coming in the mixed duet technical routine, won by Christina Jones and Bill May of the US.
At the Aquatics Palace, Tom Daley and Rebecca Gallantree of Britain won the team diving title in the event’s debut at worlds.
The duo totaled 434.65 points during the three-round competition.
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Iuliia Prokopchuk of Ukraine earned silver with 426.45. Each of them hit their best dives from 10m in the final round to gain the podium.
Xie Siyi and Chen Ruolin of China took bronze at 425.40.
Daley, the Olympic bronze medalist on 10m, used consecutive dives off the tower to propel his team to victory. He received perfect 10s for his second dive and followed up with 9.0s on his third.
The US duo of David Boudia, the Olympic 10m champion, and Jessica Parratto led by 38.2 points after the first round, but finished seventh. Boudia earned 9.0s for his opening dive on the tower, but he created a big splash on entry with his third dive that earned 6.5s.
Each man and woman did three dives, and each had to do at least one dive from both the 3m and 10m boards. Each diver’s scores were combined for their total.
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