Ukraine ends Roma 2022 with eighth European gold

Ukrainian completed their stunning European Championship performances with their seventh and eighth gold medals on the final day of artistic swimming at Roma 2022. Marta Fiedina, as well as Aleksiiva twin sisters Marnya and Vladyslava, each finished the event with six gold medals, while Italy’s history-making male solo and mixed duet star Giorgio Minisini was another to win each event he competed in – attaining four titles.

Le altre nazioni che sono salite sul podio di Roma 2022 sono state Austria, Spagna, Francia, Grecia, Serbia e Slovacchia.

WOMEN’S DUET TECH FINAL:
The relentless Aleksiiva twins continued their domination of the duet events with a dazzling performance in the Technical Final. Their strong display, to the theme ‘Royal Blood’ was awarded with a score of 92.8538 which saw the pair claim their maiden European title in the event.
Austrian duo Erini-Marina and Anna-Maria Alexandri attained a total of 91.9852 to claim an impressive silver with Constanza Ferro and Linda Cerruti from the host nation scoring 90.3577 for bronze. 
“We’re very happy because is a very difficult routine, which only started practicing it once we came to Rome five days ago,” admitted Maryna Aleksiiva. Sister Vladyslava added; “It is hard to do Duet Technical on the last day of the Championships – it is usually scheduled on the first day because of how challenging it is, but it was a good performance.
“Tomorrow we can finally see our family and see our father for the first time in six months.” The Alexandri Duet are actually triplets, with their sister and team-mate Vasiliki competing in both the Austrian team events and solo competitions – winning to bronze medals in Rome. “It’s incredible that all three of us win a medal in the same competition,” said Eirini Alexandri. We are so happy for Vaso (Vasiliki); we were more nervous for her than for us. We were shaking every time she swam. Now, it feels...full, complete.”

WOMEN’S TEAM FREE FINAL:
The last medal event of the Roma 2022 artistic swimming programme was the women’s Team Free final where Ukraine completed a stunning competition with a further title.
While the home crowd made the largest noise for their national team, the cheers for Ukraine – who have been based in Italy since war broke out in their homeland – were also incredible. Performing to an apt theme of ‘Team of the brave’ Ukraine achieved a brilliant total of 94.1000, even though the they did incur one penalty point. It was not enough to give Italy (92.6667) or France (90.5667) hope of a surprise victory though as they finished strongly, but with the respective silver and bronze medals. “We have been training in Italy for five months, one month in Ostia and then four months in Savona and we’re truly grateful for everything,” said Marta Fiedina.  “Of course I miss my family. My mum came to see us at the Worlds and it was the first time in months that we have been together, but we are hoping to go back to Ukraine after the Europeans.”

MIXED DUET FINAL:
Giorgio Minisini and Lucrezia Ruggeiro completed a brilliant year by adding double Duet gold to their two World Championship titles just under two months ago in Budapest.
The Italian pair had already won the Duet Free final on Saturday, the fifth day of competition at Roma 2022 and produced a confident performance which attained a combined score of 89.3679. It was Minisini’s fourth title of Roma 2022 following his two gold medals in the first-ever men’s Solo events to be held in an elite European Championships.
Spanish duo Pau Ribes and Emma Garcia took silver with 83.7548, while 75.5914 was enough to see Slovakia’s Jozef Solymosy and Silvia Solymosyova claim the last podium place ahead of Belgium. “It was an incredible competition and a huge thanks to the audience, to the volunteers, to the organising committee, to the Federnuoto Social Media Team and to the people watching on LEN TV,” said Minisini.
“The past three years were very hard, we went through a lot of changes and challenges, with Covid and training venues constantly changing and at one point we said ‘Either we quit or we do our best.’”  Ruggeiro added that Roma 2022 had been “a great promotion” for their discipline.

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