ATHENS, Greece, August 25. RUSSIA\u2019S super duo of Anastasias, DAVYDOVA and ERMAKOVA, lived up to their favorite status by taking Synchronized Swimming's first gold medal with a score of 99.334, as reported by Athens organizers. <\/p>\n
The Russian duet gave an almost faultless, if traditional, exhibition with perfect synchronicity and delicately artistic elements, scoring a perfect 50 (with all five judges giving 10 points) for artistic impression. <\/p>\n
Amazingly, the 2003 world champions have been together for four years but have only been working on this routine for the past four months.<\/p>\n
The crowd favourites, JAPAN's Miya TACHIBANA and Miho TAKEDA, showed a professionalism that comes only from being together for eight years to take the silver medal, like they did in both Sydney 2000 and at the 2003 World Championships. The pair did a cheeky routine that had the crowd spontaneously applauding and the judges awarding 49.500 for artistic impression and a total mark of 98.417.<\/p>\n
Alison BARTOSIK and Anna KOZLOVA (USA) swam a gracious performance with a variety of delicate moves. Although they missed a perfect first high lift, the rest of their routine was enough to earn them the bronze medal with 96.918 points.<\/p>\n
Bartosik commented on the Americans\u2019 performance: "Our dance was inspired by Greek mythology. We wanted to play up the Medusa theme. It felt like a medal performance."<\/p>\n
Teammate KOZLOVA spoke of their confidence: "It is important not to feel like the underdog, so you can compete against the best teams. I could tell by the coach's face that we did better than yesterday."<\/p>\n
The experienced Spanish pair of Gemma MENGUAL and Poala TIRADOS finished fourth after leading for much of the competition with excellent moving rotations, fluid changes in direction and a beautifully choreographed cranes, knights and lateral axis elements.<\/p>\n
The Greek team finished ninth, one place better than in 2003 at the Barcelona World Championships. The parochial crowd gave Greece's 34-year-old Christina THALASSINIDOU a fitting finale after a energetic performance with her partner Elftheria FTOULI.<\/p>\n
The Team event for Synchronized Swimming begins on Thursday, 26 August at 19.30. <\/p>\n
Synchronized Swimming Pool – WED 25 AUG 2004 – Start Time: 19:30<\/p>\n
Rank\tNOC\tName\tJudges\tTotal\tPen.\t100% Points\tFree Routine
\n\t\t\t\tJ1\tJ2\tJ3\tJ4\tJ5\t\t\t\t50% Points\tPoints Behind
\n1\t RUS
\nDAVYDOVA Anastasia
\nERMAKOVA Anastasia
\nTM
\nAI\t9.9
\n10.0\t10.0
\n10.0\t9.9
\n10.0\t10.0
\n10.0\t10.0
\n10.0\t49.833
\n50.000\t\t99.833\t49.917
\n2\t JPN
\nTACHIBANA Miya
\nTAKEDA Miho
\nTM
\nAI\t9.9
\n9.9\t9.9
\n9.8\t9.8
\n9.9\t9.9
\n9.9\t9.8
\n9.9\t49.333
\n49.500\t\t98.833\t49.417\t0.500
\n3\t USA
\nBARTOSIK Alison
\nKOZLOVA Anna
\nTM
\nAI\t9.7
\n9.7\t9.8
\n9.6\t9.7
\n9.8\t9.8
\n9.8\t9.7
\n9.6\t48.667
\n48.500\t\t97.167\t48.584\t1.333
\n4\t ESP
\nMENGUAL Gemma
\nTIRADOS Paola
\nTM
\nAI\t9.6
\n9.8\t9.6
\n9.8\t9.6
\n9.7\t9.6
\n9.6\t9.7
\n9.7\t48.000
\n48.667\t\t96.667\t48.334\t1.583
\n5\t FRA
\nDEDIEU Virginie
\nTHIBAUD Laure
\nTM
\nAI\t9.6
\n9.8\t9.5
\n9.5\t9.7
\n9.5\t9.5
\n9.4\t9.6
\n9.8\t47.833
\n48.000\t\t95.833\t47.917\t2.000
\n6\t CAN
\nLETOURNEAU Fanny
\nSTEWART Courtenay
\nTM
\nAI\t9.5
\n9.6\t9.6
\n9.4\t9.5
\n9.7\t9.7
\n9.6\t9.5
\n9.6\t47.667
\n48.000\t\t95.667\t47.834\t2.083
\n7\t CHN
\nGU Beibei
\nZHANG Xiaohuan
\nTM
\nAI\t9.4
\n9.5\t9.5
\n9.1\t9.4
\n9.5\t9.4
\n9.3\t9.4
\n9.5\t47.000
\n47.167\t\t94.167\t47.084\t2.833
\n8\t ITA
\nSPAZIANI Beatrice
\nZAFFALON Lorena
\nTM
\nAI\t9.3
\n9.4\t9.2
\n9.3\t9.4
\n9.4\t9.4
\n9.3\t9.3
\n9.4\t46.667
\n46.833\t\t93.500\t46.750\t3.167
\n9\t GRE
\nFTOULI Eleftheria
\nTHALASSINIDOU Christina
\nTM
\nAI\t9.4
\n9.3\t9.4
\n9.2\t9.3
\n9.4\t9.3
\n9.2\t9.2
\n9.4\t46.667
\n46.500\t\t93.167\t46.584\t3.333
\n10\t SUI
\nBRUNNER Magdalena
\nSCHMID Belinda
\nTM
\nAI\t9.3
\n9.2\t9.1
\n9.1\t9.3
\n9.3\t9.1
\n9.1\t9.3
\n9.3\t46.167
\n46.000\t\t92.167\t46.084\t3.833
\n11\t UKR
\nGAYVORONSKA Iryna
\nYUSHKO Darya
\nTM
\nAI\t9.2
\n9.0\t9.3
\n9.0\t9.2
\n9.3\t9.3
\n9.1\t9.2
\n9.2\t46.167
\n45.500\t\t91.667\t45.834\t4.083
\n12\t BRA
\nMORAES Carolina
\nMORAES Isabela
\nTM
\nAI\t9.2
\n9.1\t9.3
\n9.3\t9.1
\n9.2\t9.2
\n9.0\t9.1
\n9.1\t45.833
\n45.667\t\t91.500\t45.750\t4.167<\/p>\n
Referee\tTUDINI Cicci
\nTSSC<\/p>\n
Ass. Referee\tde DEVONISH Lina
\nTSSC<\/p>\n
Technical Merit\tJudge 1\tICHIHASHI Harue
\n JPN<\/p>\n
Judge 2\tTACKETT Carol
\n USA<\/p>\n
Judge 3\tGRAY Jenny
\n GBR<\/p>\n
Judge 4\tSAIDOVA Svetlana
\n UKR<\/p>\n
Judge 5\tSALERA Sisto
\n SUI<\/p>\n
\t\tArtistic Impression\tJudge 1\tBESANCON Marie Claude
\n FRA<\/p>\n
Judge 2\tGRAUPERA Hortensia
\n ESP<\/p>\n
Judge 3\tROBERTS Sandra
\n CAN<\/p>\n
Judge 4\tLOUTFY Laila
\n EGY<\/p>\n
Judge 5\tKRALIKOVA Ivona
\n CZE<\/p>\n
Legend
\nTM-Technical Merit\tAI-Artistic Impression
\nPen.-Penalty\tDNS-Did Not Start
\nDSQ-Disqualified\tTSSC-Technical Synchronized Swimming Committee
\nFINA-F\u00e9d\u00e9ration internationale de natation\t<\/p>\n
Note:
\nApproved by the referee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ATHENS, Greece, August 25. RUSSIA\u2019S super duo of Anastasias, DAVYDOVA and ERMAKOVA, lived up to their favorite status by taking Synchronized Swimming's first gold medal with a score of 99.334,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n