BARCELONA (Reuters) – Russia‘s unstoppable synchronized swimming machine churned out a fourth consecutive team technical gold at the world championships in Barcelona on Monday as Spain lifted the home support by taking silver.
The Russians did not even need Svetlana Romashina, who won gold in the solo technical event on Saturday, or the partner with whom she triumphed in Sunday’s technical duet, Svetlana Kolesnichenko, to amass a daunting points total of 96.600.
Fans inside the Palau Sant Jordi, part of the complex on the Montjuic hill built for the 1992 Olympics, were rewarded when Spain snatched silver with 94.400, with Ukraine taking bronze on 93.300 for their first world championship podium.
Maria Shurochkina, one of Russia’s eight-woman team, told reporters: “We’ve trained hard for a year and it wasn’t easy because there are five new members in our team so it was hard to work together at the beginning.”
Alexandra Zueva added: “We are new and young members of the team. This is our first world championship gold, these emotions are new, that’s why we are so happy.”
China, who won silver at the last world championships in Shanghai two years ago, are not competing in the team events at the latest edition.
(Writing by Iain Rogers in Madrid, editing by Alison Wildey)