Courtesy: LEN Media
This year’s top LEN artistic (synchronized) swimming event, the Champions Cup kicks off on Friday in St. Petersburg (RUS) and offers Olympic berths for the respective winners of the duet and team events. Host Russia is the outstanding favorite 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 (Synchronized) 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 organizes 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 Synchronized 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.
LEN Artistic (Synchronized) 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
LEN offers free live streaming on its website: www.len.eu.