The Russian Synchronised Swimming Championship began today at the Kazan Aquatics Palace. The solo swimmers were first to showcase their skills, presenting a technical routine.
A routine by Darya Kirsanova, a swimmer from Moscow, received 90.4217 points from the referees and proved deserving of the gold medal. The silver medal went to Alina Mantulenko from the Moscow Oblast, who got 90.2571 points. Another Moscow athlete, Nadezhda Demidova, won bronze, with 89.6187 points.
“Obviously, I’m incredibly happy. I spent each day preparing for this, training from dawn to dusk. I owe all of this to my coach,” Darya Kirsanova confessed after the Award Ceremony. She also shared how the coronavirus pandemic had impacted her regimen. “We had to stay at home through most of the summer and autumn, I had online training sessions and ‘dry’ workouts at the gym. It wasn’t until July that I could finally swim,” said the winner.
The technical routine that Darya Kirsanova presented today isn’t new. She has already demonstrated it during junior championships. She did add new elements to the routine, now that she is competing as an adult.
When asked what it was like to train with her mother (for reference: Darya Kirsanova’s mother is Mariya Kiselyova, three-times world champion and nine-times European champion), the athlete replied, “It’s hard. Because she has seen me at my best, and always expects me to perform like this. But this is how you achieve great results.”
Press office of ANO “Directorate for Sports and Social Projects”