Synchronized swimmers extend Russia’s dominance at European Championships
Russia's synchronized swimmers continued their country’s winning run at the European Championships in Glasgow, adding two more gold medals to the team’s tally.
On Tuesday, Aleksandr Maltsev and Maya Gurbanberdieva won the duet free routine mixed final, posting a meet-high score of 92.400 points.
They outscored their closest competitors, European silver medalists Manila Flamini and Giorgio Minisini of Italy, by 1.6 points. Bronze was taken by Spanish duet Berta Ferreras Sanz and Pau Ribes Culla.
The mixed duet is a relatively new discipline which was introduced at the 2015 FINA World championships in Kazan, Russia.
Also on Tuesday, Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Subbotina claimed yet another gold in the duet free program, beating the second-placed Ukrainian couple Anastasiya Savchuk and Yelyzaveta Yakhno by a full three points. Italy’s Linda Cerruti and Costanza Ferro finished third.
On Monday, 18-year-old Russian swimming sensation Kliment Kolesnikov added the 100m backstroke gold to his name, having earlier won the men’s 50m backstroke with a world record time.
Kolesnikov was the fastest swimmer the cross the 100m distance, clocking a time of 52.53 seconds. Silver went to fellow Russian athlete Evgeny Rylov, who was 0.3 seconds behind Kolesnikov.
After four competitive days at the multi-sport European Championships, Russia tops the medal standings with 17 gold medals, which is 10 more than the second-placed Italians, whose athletes have taken seven titles so far.
Great Britain has the same number of golds but trails Italy by overall number of medals.
