China conquers Synchronised Swimming: 2011 China Open Championship
China portrays its potential by making a clean sweep in Synchronised Swimming at 2011 China Open Championship on April 24. The championship continued for four consecutive days, where Chinese swimmers dominated all the seven events of Synchronised Swimming.
The competition was of considerable importance, as it is scheduled to precede the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai this July. Therefore, it provided a platform to the elites of Synchronised Swimming to warm themselves up before the world titles. The
Open Championship magnetised the athletes of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Austria and China, but none of the international teams competed in the group events.
In addition, Coach to Chinese Team, Zhang Xiaohuan said, "There were only four foreign countries here and none of them participated in the team events, so the China Open for us was only a chance to test our players. The clean sweep doesn't mean anything."
China was the only team to compete in the free combination event, earned 48.000 points each in artistic and technical impression, and occupied the gold medal with 96.000 points. China also earned the titles of technical routine and free routine team events.
Furthermore, Zhang was not happy with the solo participation and said that there were some difficulties, which need to be taken care of and he claimed that he will try to resolve issues before the World Championships in July.
Sun Wenyan of China grabbed the gold medal for technical routine solo by scoring 94.666 points in contrast to Austria’s Nadine Brandl settled for silver medal after gaining 86.000. Uzbekistan’s Ruzmetova Anastasiya followed them on the podium for bronze
medal, earning a total of 82.667 points.
Chinese Liu Ou and Luo Qian also brought gold medals home in free routine duet, scoring 94.834 as a mutual effort, whereas Kazakhstan’s Anna Kulkina and Aigerim Zhexembinova claimed silver with 88.833. Netherlands’s Elisabeth Sneeuw and Nicolien Wellen stepped
the podium for bronze, earning 87.000 points
The championship also witnessed an upsetting performance from the Chinese twin sisters, Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen, who failed to defend their synchronised swimming duo title, after delivering an unimpressive performance at the China Open. The two of
them were known as best synchronised duo after they earned the crown at 2010 World Cup, but now they are expected to be dropped out of Chinese squad for the home World Championships.
They lost the title from Ou and Xuechen on Saturday in technical routine duet final and repeated the same in free routine duet final on Sunday. On the contrary, these twins expressed hopefulness on their participation at the 2011 Shanghai Championships.
The twins believed that they can meet crowd’s expectations at the upcoming championships by regaining their titles.
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