Russia wins third gold at World Aquatic Championships

Natalia Ishchenko has grabbed Russia’s third gold medal at the 13th FINA World Championships in Rome, winning the technical solo in the synchronized swimming competition.

The 23-year-old, who was in the lead after the preliminaries on June 19, proved her class on Monday.

The referees awarded the Russian with a score of 98.677 in the finals, which allowed her to get the better of Spaniard Gemma Mengual (97.833) and Marie-Pier Boudreau-Gagnon of Canada (96.000).

Diver Yulia Pakhalina and the synchronized swimming team brought Russia its first two gold medals at the 13th FINA World Championships in Rome on Sunday.

Pakhalina triumphed in the 1-meter springboard. The Russian showed an outstanding result of 325.05 points, 13.15 points ahead of Minxia Wu from China. Another Chinese athlete Wang Han took the bronze.

“It was very important for me to keep a high level of concentration until the end of the program. The 1-meter is a very delicate event. You can’t even do a slight mistake if want to win,” Yulia Pakhalina said to the tournament’s official website.

32-year-old claimed her third career World Championship gold and first ever medal on 1-meter springboard.

The Russian synchronized swimmers were first in the Team Technical.

The 'Magnificent Eight' of Daria Korobova, Anna Nasekina, Aleksandra Patskevich, Victoria Shestakovich, Alla Shishkina, Elizaveta Stepanova, Anzhelika Timanina and Sofia Volkova earned 98.833, beating rivals from Spain (97.833) and China (95.167).