Olympic Synchro Spots On the Line at Champions Cup

7 RUS RUSSIA KOLESNICHENKO Svetlana, SUBBOTINA Varvara DUET FREE ROUTINE FINAL Glasgow 07/08/18 Synchronised Swimming Scotstoun Sports Campus LEN European Aquatics Championships 2018 European Championships 2018 Photo Pasquale Mesiano/ Deepbluemedia /Insidefoto

Photo Courtesy: Pasquale Mesiano/ Deepbluemedia /Insidefoto

This year’s top LEN artistic (synchronised) swimming event, the Champions Cup kicks off on Friday in St. Petersburg, Russia, and offers Olympic synchro spot for the respective winners of the duet and team events. Host Russia is the outstanding favourite to book those Tokyo spots this weekend.

At the opening press conference held in St. Petersburg LEN Executive Director Gianni Minervini underlined the outstanding importance of the LEN Artistic (Synchronised) Swimming Champions Cup in this season as the continent’s Olympic qualification event.

“We are happy that the most successful nation of the sport, Russia organises this event and we are also happy that it will happen here in St. Petersburg so we can welcome one more great new city among the hosts of the major LEN showcases.”

LEN Operational Manager Marco Birri added that the free live stream would ensure great visibility of the event and LEN also takes extra care of promoting the Champions Cup on its social media channels.

President of the host Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation Alexei Vlasenko and Natalia Safonova, Vice Chair of the city’s sports council agreed that they were happy to organize this outstanding meet in St. Petersburg as it would help to boost synchro’s popularity around the continent as well it means a great promotion for the city itself.

No doubt that Russians are set to be the frontrunners in the events. Their head coach, a legend of the sport, Tatiana Pokrovskaya was also present at the conference and besides talking about the chances, she also mentioned that the Champions Cup offers a fine chance for the future generations as it lifts the usual limitation of one entry per nation in several events.

“Since there is an opportunity to have two entries in specific events, we can give opportunity for our juniors to compete in an elite-level meet, involve swimmers from St. Petersburg which is great and I hope the public will enjoy the performances.”

The three-day spectacle kicks off on Friday. Each event offers medals for the top three, however, the Olympic qualification shall be decided based on the combined results of the technical and free routines as it’s usual at the Games.

Check out more Artistic Swimming coverage here.

LEN Artistic (Synchronised) Swimming Champions Cup, Schedule

Friday

10.00 Team technical

14.00 Duet free (prelims)

19.00 Highlight

Saturday

14.00 Duet technical

15.30 Mixed duet technical

18.00 Free Combination

Sunday

10.00 Team free

14.00 Duet free (final)

15.30 Mixed duet free

18.00 Gala

— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with LEN Media. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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