Russia claimed gold in the women's team technical synchronized swimming at the 17th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday.
Russia, represented by Anastasia Bayandina, Vlada Chigireva, Veronika Kalinina, Maria Shurochkina, Daria Bayandina, Marina Goliadkina, Polina Komar and Darina Valitova, gained 96.0109 points to leave China second and Japan third with 94,2165 and 93,1590 points respectively.
The Russian deputy prime minister responsible for sport, Vitaly Mutko, congratulated the team on their victory.
“It’s nice to see, considering they are winning with a renewed team, having only two Olympic champions (Shurochkina and Chireva),” said Mutko, TASS reported.
“I’m congratulating the team and their coach Tatiana Pokrovskaya. She is everything for our synchronized swimming,” he added.
The gold is Russia’s fourth at the competition. Earlier, 23-year-old Svetlana Kolesnichenko helped Russia claim glory twice, earning gold in the solo technical routine and in the women's duet technical synchronized swimming together with Alexandra Patskevich. The men’s duo of Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov were also victorious in the 3-meter springboard synchronized diving.
Aside from gold, Russia has also claimed one bronze and two silver medals.
The 17th FINA World Championships is being held in Budapest from July 14 to July 30.