The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Russians rule the synchro pool

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Thursday, Mar 22, 2007
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Russians rule the synchro pool

— Photo: AFP

GOLDEN DIVE: China's Luo Yutong performs a somersault on the way to men's 1m springboard diving gold.

MELBOURNE: Free combination. Solo technical. Duet technical. Team technical. Sounds technical, but it's all pretty clear here — the Russians are queens of the synchronised swimming pool at the World championships.

The Russians won their fourth straight gold in the temporary pool at the Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday — the team technical involving eight swimmers.

Dressed in bright yellow, blue and orange costumes, the Russians scored 99.000 points to finish well ahead of silver medallists Japan, with 97.833. Spain took the bronze with 97.167, China was fourth and the United States fifth.

The Russians won the free combination on Sunday, Natalia Ischenko the solo technical on Monday, and Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova the duet technical on Tuesday.

And it will likely get better for the Russians — Davydova and Ermakova led the preliminaries on Wednesday for Friday's duet free final, and the Russian team is heavily favoured in the team free on the closing night on Saturday.

The Russians' only roadblock to a sweep of seven golds could come from French star Virginie Dedieu, who made an impressive return to the pool in the solo free preliminaries and is favoured in Thursday's final.

The results: Open water swimming: Men: 10km final: 1. Vladimir Dyatchin (Rus) 1:55: 32.52s; 2. Thomas Lurz (Ger) 1:55:32.58; 3. Evgeny Drattsev (Rus) 1:55:47.31.

Diving: 1m springboard final: 1. Luo Yutong (Chn) 477.40 points; 2. He Chong (Chn) 469.85;

3. Cristopher Sacchin (Ita) 441.40.

Women: Team technical: 1. Russia (99.000 points); 2. Japan (97.833); 3. Spain (97.167).

Diving: 10m platform: 1. Wang Xin (Chn) 432.85 points; 2. Chen Ruolin (Chn) 410.30; 3. Christin Steuer (Ger) 386.85.

Waterpolo: Preliminaries: Group A: Russia 16 bt China 8; Spain 15 bt Germany 6. Group B: Canada 6 bt Brazil 3. Group C: USA 13 bt Kazakhstan 5; Greece 14 bt The Netherlands 7. — Agencies

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