Sportmindig.hu writes that the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series has arrived in Budapest, to the most outstanding venue so far. Budapest follows Paris, Beijing and Tokyo in the line, though the number of guests coming to Budapest is much more than in the previous cities.
The chairman of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series committee, Lisa Schott, said that the venues in Városliget at last year’s World Championship were astonishing, the Duna Aquatics Arena is a worthy venue as well. She further argues that none of the other World Series’ events showcased such devotion when it came to the organisation.
The event kicks off on Friday afternoon with the performance of the regular gold winner Spanish team, arriving exclusively for the free combination synchronised swimming number.
Saturday is the day of the duo’s, where Sportmindig argues that you should pay special attention to the Italian duo consisting of Linda Cerruti and Constanza Ferro and to the Austrian Alexandri triplets. The triplets, of Greek origins, but playing for the Austrian team, are usually split into duos based on who performs the best before the events. This time it is Anna-Marián and Eirin; Vasiliki is going solo.
Szofi Kiss is representing Hungary in the solo numbers, but she is not by herself, as you will find Hungarian colours in the team’s numbers and in free combination.
The Russian team’s performance might be one of the most anticipated parts of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series’s stop at Budapest, but the Ukrainian team is also promising, given their outstanding performance at last year’s World Championship. You can watch them prove themselves on Sunday afternoon.
The biggest name that Sportmindig mentions is the Ukrainian Svetlana Kolesnichenko, four-times world champion, also the best of the previous year’s World Championship that took place in Budapest. However, the Ukrainian swimmer goddess suffered a knee injury. Thus she had to skip Thursday’s training. It is possible that she will have to quit on the whole event, but her reserve, Varvara Subbotina, is a fine sportswoman too. Being Kolesnichenko’s second in itself is telling of great talent, but on top of this, 17-year-old Subbotina is trained by Tatjana Danchenko, who helped to win 80 golds in the past ten years.
Here you can check out the full programme
Friday
11.00 Duo’s short number
17.00 Free Combination Synchronised Swimming
Saturday
10.00 Teams’ short number
11.40 Solo shorts
17.00 Highlight number
18.20 Duo’s Free Combination Synchronised Swimming
Sunday
10.00 Solo Free Combination
15.00 Teams’ Free Combination
16.30 Gala
featured image: www.facebook.com/Budapest2017FINAVizesVilágbajnokság