Russia's hegemony remains in technical duet at swimming worlds

BARCELONA, Spain - Russian swimmers Svetlana Romashina and her new partner Svetlana Kolesnichenko won the gold medal in the synchronized swimming technical duet here at the FINA World Championships on Sunday.

Russia's Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina perform in the synchronised swimming duet technical routine preliminaries during the World Swimming Championships at the Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, July 21, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

The three-time Olympic champion Romashina took the leading role after Natalia Ischenko (who has 16 gold medals and 2 silver) took a sabbatical. Sunday's triumph with her new partner Kolesnichenko leaves Russia with its 10th world title in the duet since 1998.

The 27-year-old Chinese twins, Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen won the silver medal with a total score of 94.9, below the 97.3 points of Russia.

They had won a duet technical bronze in Rome in 2009 and silver in Shanghai 2011 which along with Sunday's medal they have a total of eight medals at world level.

Meanwhile, Spanish swimmers Ona Carbonell and Margalida Crespi (who is replacing London silver medallist Andrea Fuentes) won bronze medal scoring 93.8 points.

This is the second bronze medal for Carbonell in Barcelona after finishing third in the solo technical routine on Saturday.

The technical duet is a two-minute routine involving technical aspects such as executions, synchronization and difficulty. On Monday swimmers will compete in the team technical routine.

The synchronized swimming competition is being held at the Palau Sant Jordi which will also host swimming events and men and women water polo finals during the championships.

A total of 2,293 athletes are competing in Barcelona 2013, setting a record in terms of participation as opposed to Shanghai 2011 where there were 2,220 athletes. 308 of the total compete in the synchronized swimming event.

China's Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen perform in the synchronised swimming duet technical routine preliminaries during the World Swimming Championships at the Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, July 21, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]