16th FINA World Championships July 24 - August 9, 2015 FINA WORLDS 2015: PREVIEW OF COMPETITION DAY, JULY 31 31.07.2015, 07:00 The eighth competition day of the 16th FINA World Championships promises a OFFICIAL EVENTS wealth of positive emotions: the world's best athletes will compete for two sets of medals, in diving and synchronised swimming. The eighth competition day of the 16th FINA World Championships promises a wealth of positive emotions: the world's best athletes will compete for two sets of medals, in diving and synchronised swimming. This day will start at 10:00 with the women's preliminary round in the 3m springboard event at the Aquatics Palace. At 15:00, the semifinals for this competition will take place. A set of medals will be contested in the men’s 3m springboard event. Chinese athlete Cao Yuan is worthy of attention. He failed his first dive in the semifinal series, but then performed absolutely flawlessly, and received the highest score from the judges. Second place went to He Chao, also from China. Third place went to London Olympic champion, Ilia Zakharov, from Russia. It is therefore likely that competition will take place between these three. As we reported earlier, Cao Yuan paired with Qin Kai became world champion in the synchronised diving event. "I am very happy and excited at the same time, because this is my first World Championships. I am very grateful to my partner Kai Qin for the support he has given me during this whole time. He gave me the support I needed to relax and give my 100% despite the intense competition," Cao Yuan said to reporters. Starting at 17:30 at the Kazan Arena Stadium, synchronised swimmers from 12 countries will compete for the world championships title in the team free routine. Perhaps the main contenders for gold will be the tournament hosts consisting of Vlada Chigireva, Elena Prokofyeva, Anzhelika Timanina, Svetlana Kolesnichenko, Alla Shishkina, Gelena Topilina, Aleksandra Patskevich and Maria Shurochkina – just a few days ago, the Russian girls became world champions in the technical routine. “When we go out on the deck, each of us is part of a well-knit team. Although we never say we are the best. Our performance is the way to show what we are capable of, to show what we have learned practicing every single day for 10 or 11 hours. And we believe we are good at it. We do not claim the gold in advance. We totally respect our opponents. And if everyone thinks we are not nervous at all, then they are mistaken,” Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Alla Shishkina, representatives of the Russian synchro swimming team, admitted. However, their major competitors are teams of China and Japan, which won second and third positions in the technical routine respectively. They are not going to surrender, and will show their highest class in the free routine. It is worth noting that Team China, which took silver in the duet event at the 2015 FINA World Championships, includes London bronze medallist Sun Wenyan and two-time Olympic champion Huang Xuechen. The remaining Chinese synchronised swimmers also intend to show their best result. “We understand that the competition in synchronised swimming event is becoming tougher every year. There are plenty of things to learn and to strive for and we are definitely going to work really hard to get much higher results in the future,” Chinese synchro swimmers Li Xiaolu and Li Guo said about their team’s success. Press Office of Organising Committee for 16th FINA World Championships BACK TO NEWS FEED http://finaworlds2015.dspkazan.com/en/news_items/2480 Page 1 of 1.