HANGZHOU, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) — The inventive swimming competitors on the Hangzhou Asian Games opened on Friday with China taking the lead in each duet technical routine and group acrobatic routine.
China’s twin sisters Wang Qianyi and Wang Liuyi, heavy favorites for the duet gold, scored 266.5767 to rank first within the duet technical routine. Japan’s 16-year-old Moe Higa and her companion Mashiro Yasunaga, who gained gold in technical duet on the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships, ranked second with 253.7433. Kazakhstan’s Arina Pushkina and Yasmin Tukakova positioned third with 218.1633.
The girls’s duets characteristic technical and free routines, whereas the combined groups may have three routines: acrobatic, free, and technical.
China additionally got here first within the acrobatic routine with 235.7534. Japan and Kazakhstan ranked second and third with 222.3466 and 205.6333 respectively.
This is the primary Asian Games the place male inventive swimmers will compete. Men made their debut within the occasion on the 2015 FINA World Championships, and will probably be competing on the Olympics for the primary time in Paris subsequent yr.
Teams can have as much as two male members, although there are solely two in whole competing in Hangzhou: China’s Shi Haoyu and Thailand’s Kantinan Adisaisiributr.
In the final 4 Asian Games, the gold and silver medal positions in duet have been precisely the identical, with China in first place adopted by Japan. Kazakhstan took bronze in 2014 and 2018.