China’s Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi in 1st after duet technical in artistic swimming at Paris Games

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — China’s Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi scored 276.7867 for first place after duet technical routines in artistic swimming Friday night at the Paris Games.

Austria’s Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini-Marina Alexandri were in second with a 267.2533, and Bregje de Brouwer and Noortje de Brouwer of the Netherlands sat in third with a 264.7066.

Gold will be decided Saturday night with the free routines.

The Wangs, de Brouwers and Ukraine’s Maryna Aleksiiva and Vladyslava Aleksiiva, who finished fifth, are twins. The Alexandri sisters are part of a set of triplets.

The swimmers are judged on execution, artistic impression and total degree of difficulty. The 2 minute, 20 second routines must have five technical elements and two additional hybrids and one-pair acrobatics must be performed.

The Wangs were the last performers and wowed to a routine they called “lotus.” They were the only duet to get a score over 100 on artistic impression with a 102.1000.

The twins are already champions in these Games as part of the eight-person Chinese team which won gold Wednesday night. They also won gold at the 2022 and 2024 world championships in both duet free and duet technical.

The Alexandri sisters performed an exciting routine to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” that was a fan favorite. The duo took gold in the duet free competition at the 2023 world championships. Their other sister, Vasiliki-Pagona Alexandri, is also an artistic swimmer who often competes in solo events.

Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe of Britain were fourth with a 264.0282. They won bronze in duet free and silver in duet technical at the 2024 world championships.

In sixth were Japan’s Higa Moe and Sato Tomoka and Spain’s Alisa Ozhogina Ozhogin and Iris Tio, who won bronze in the team competition, were seventh with a 254.0816

Americans Jaime Czarkowski and Megumi Field, who helped the U.S. win silver in the team event, were in 11th with a 230.7134.

Russia has won the event in every Olympics since 2000. Another country will get to take home gold this time with Russia not being allowed to participate in Paris after the invasion of Ukraine.

The sport changed its name from synchronized swimming to artistic swimming in 2017 to give it a broader appeal. But some of the participants haven’t fully embraced the change and still call it “synchro.”

Men were allowed to compete in the sport for the first time at these Olympics, but none were selected for a team. A mixed duet team event could be added for Los Angeles in 2028 to give men a bigger chance to participate.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games