China’s Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi took first place with a score of 276.7867 after the duet technical routines in artistic swimming on Friday night at the Paris Games.
Austria’s Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini-Marina Alexandri were in second place with 267.2533, while the Netherlands’ Bregje de Brouwer and Noortje de Brouwer were in third with 264.7066.
The gold medal will be decided on 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 based on execution, artistic impression, and difficulty. Each routine, lasting 2 minutes and 20 seconds, must include five technical elements, two additional hybrids, and one pair of acrobatics.
The Wangs performed last and impressed the judges with their routine called “lotus,” achieving the only score over 100 for artistic impression with a 102.1000.
The Wangs are also part of the Chinese team that won gold on Wednesday night and are champions from the 2022 and 2024 world championships in both duet-free and duet technical.
The Alexandri sisters delivered an exciting routine to Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” which was a fan favorite. They won gold in duet free at the 2023 world championships. Their other sister, Vasiliki-Pagona Alexandri, is also an artistic swimmer competing in solo events.
Britain’s Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe were fourth with a score of 264.0282. They won bronze in duet free and silver in duet technical at the 2024 world championships.
Japan’s Higa Moe and Sato Tomoka were in sixth place, and Spain’s Alisa Ozhogina Ozhogin and Iris Tio, who won bronze in the team competition, were seventh with a score of 254.0816.
