Translated material
Against your own style
Our synchronized swimming primas performed and won gold.
Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova won Olympic gold in the synchronized swimming duet competition. In the final, the Russians scored 49.917 points, ahead of the Spanish pair Andrea Fuentes - Jema Mengual by 0.417 points and Saho Harada - Emiko Suzuki from Japan by almost a point.The Russians went to the Games in Beijing with the rank of Olympic champions and therefore were determined to defend this title. This season, Davydova and Ermakova won all the competitions in which they took part. And only because of a cold we missed the European Aquatics Championships. Nevertheless, on the eve of their trip to Beijing, the champions said that although they were confident of their victory, the Olympics were the most unpredictable competitions. The Russians were also afraid of biased refereeing at this tournament. But their first performance at the Aquatic Center immediately removed all questions.
After the technical program, the Russians were almost a point ahead of their closest pursuers, the Spaniards. Together with coach Tatyana Danchenko, they made their new program to the music of the Russian folk song “The Moon is Shining.” According to the athletes, this program conveyed the national spirit and flavor and therefore should have appealed to the audience.
Indeed, after the last chords died down, the hall exploded with applause. The same picture was repeated after the free program - a reworked previous program to the music of Grieg “In the Cave of the Mountain King”. The final show of this number only confirmed the advantage of our athletes. Ermakova and Davydova, as predicted by many, won the second Olympics in a row.
“We understood that no one would bring us a gold medal on a silver platter. It was very difficult to force myself to train. But then we got involved. In this sense, this victory was much more difficult for us in all respects - physical, moral. But the victory in Athens four years ago was more memorable, because then we got our first gold,” Ermakova explained.
According to the Russians, they considered the Spanish women, who have improved greatly over the past two years, to be their main competitors at the Olympics. Jema Mengual changed her partner Paola Tirados to Andrea Fuentes. Tirados often made mistakes in competitions - sometimes she would raise her hand in the wrong place, sometimes her leg... “In Athens we were calmer than here. At these Games, the Spanish women looked very technical and artistic. They themselves admitted that they tried to adopt our style. It turns out that we competed against our own style,” said Davydova.
“We are very happy that we received all tens for the technique of the program,” admitted Anastasia Ermakova. - This fact speaks volumes. Of course, there was a little pressure that our team had few medals. We watched TV at home in Moscow and were worried. But the same situation was in Athens. We knew that when we arrived in Beijing, the artistic gymnasts would follow us, and everything would be fine.”