BUDAPEST, July 22 (Xinhua) -- In a repeat of the previous days, Russia swept first place on the last day of the 16th FINA World Junior Artistic Swimming Championships here on Sunday in the mixed duet free final, coming out ahead of China and Japan.
Russia also took the title of women's team free combination, ahead of the Ukrainian and Japanese team, while the Chinese team finished fourth.
Finishing atop both the mixed duet free and team free combination, Russia snatched total victory here in the Hungarian capital.
For the eighth time in history, one single nation snatched all of the gold medals. Apart from Russia, the other medal winning countries at the tournament were Japan, China and Ukraine, which distributed between themselves nine silver and nine bronze medals.
In the mixed duet free final, the Russians earned the gold medal with 85.1333 points, followed by China with 81.4667 points, while the Japanese came in third with 80.7667 points.
It was the last international swim for Alina Mantulenko and Mikhail Vasilev as juniors, and they presented an old school classical "Spartak" program. It was a hurdle from a technical standpoint.
The second place was again shared between China and Japan.
The Chinese duo of Zhang Yiyao and Shi Haoyu had a strategic advantage, as they swam first.
Jimma Iwasaki and Kana Miyauchi of Japan presented a "Dracula-themed" performance, accompanied by a modern mix of 3 classical pieces - Omen by Goldsmith, Moonlight by Chopin and Messa da Requiem by Verdi.
In the women's team free combination final, the Russian gold was worth a massive 94.2333 points, while the Ukrainian silver was weighted 92.1000. The bronze went to Japan with 90.5333 points, closely followed by China who came fourth with 89.0000 points.
"We are very happy about the ninth win to go and the overall prize we have received. It is a big honor," said Russian senior coach Natalia Mendygalieva. "There is no other secret for our success. We just trained hard and we will be striving to repeat this success story in the future," she explained.
After five competition days, the constant favorite Russia added nine golds to its numerous titles. Ukraine collected seven silvers, followed by the Japanese on eight bronze medals. China rounds out the chart of the winning nations with two silvers and one bronze.
