The Russian duo of Natalia Ishchenko<\/strong> and Svetlana Romashina<\/strong> showed the best technical routine and picked up 95.4672 points in the duet final at the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan.<\/p>\n

In the preliminary round, the top three countries out of 38 duets were Russia, China and Japan. The winners finished 2.2924 points ahead of the Chinese synchro swimmers and 4.2211 points ahead of the Japanese ones.<\/p>\n

Lolita Ananasova<\/strong> and Anna Voloshyna<\/strong> of Ukraine were breathing down the Russians\u2019 neck. For their part, the Ukranians had to watch out for Spanish duet who know how fight to the end.<\/p>\n

The golden duet of the London 2012 Olympics, Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina, performed second to last in the list of 12 participating countries.<\/p>\n

At London 2012, Russia\u2019s rivals, Ona Carbonell<\/strong> and her partner of that time Andrea Fuentes<\/strong>, settled for the second place after being outshone by the Russians. Carbonell, by the way, gave thumbs-up to Kazan\u2019s synchronised swimming venue: \u201cIt is really comfortable to train in an outdoor venue just because you can breathe fresh air here.\u201d The Spanish synchro swimmer named Russia and China among her main rivals. Olympic medallists Xuechen Huang and Wenyan Sun represented China. Carbonell and Wenyan took silver and bronze respectively in the solo technical routine yesterday, losing to Svetlana Romashina, so the tussle between them was really tough.<\/p>\n

The Americans surprised the audience with rock\u2019n\u2019roll, the Mexican duet inflamed fans with ethnic themes, Italy\u2019s energetic performance got rounds of applause. Regardless of its appeal, the Ukrainians\u2019 dramatic routine earned them only 91.6770 points. The Russians performed a fiery gypsy dance and deservedly won the gold medal. The synchro swimmers of Ukraine came fourth, Spain placed fifth.<\/p>\n

1. Natalia ISHCHENKO \/ Svetlana ROMASHINA (RUS) \u2013 95.4672
\n2. Huang XUECHEN \/ Sun WENYAN (CHN ) \u2013 93.3279
\n3. Yukiko INUI \/ Risako MITSIU (JPN) \u2013 92.0079<\/p>\n

Gold medallist Natalia Ishchenko:<\/strong> \u201dI can\u2019t say this is my hardest victory because of my time-out and my come back. But it means a lot for me as this is our home championship. Every athlete dreams of performing in front of his native spectators. They supported us fantastically. There have been a lot of victories in my career but it is necessary to set new goals and look for motivation all the time. That\u2019s why we always try to improve, to create more complicated and original programs\u201d.<\/p>\n

(On preparing for the Olympics)<\/strong> \u201cOf course I will take part in a group routine in Rio. This is the only way, because we have a team of nine people. So I\u2019m ready to increase my training lots to be 100 percent ready for the Olympic Games. Rio is my biggest motivation since I came back into the sport after having a baby. I think that\u2019s good that I\u2019m doing everything step by step\u201d.<\/p>\n