China leads artistic swimming at Hangzhou Asiad

The artistic swimming competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games opened on Friday with China taking the lead in both duet technical routine and team acrobatic routine.

China's twin sisters Wang Qianyi and Wang Liuyi, heavy favorites for the duet gold, scored 266.5767 to rank first in the duet technical routine. Japan's 16-year-old Moe Higa and her partner Mashiro Yasunaga, who won gold in technical duet at the 2023 Fukuoka World Championships, ranked second with 253.7433. Kazakhstan's Arina Pushkina and Yasmin Tukakova placed third with 218.1633.

The women's duets feature technical and free routines, while the mixed teams will have three routines: acrobatic, free, and technical.

China also came first in the acrobatic routine with 235.7534. Japan and Kazakhstan ranked second and third with 222.3466 and 205.6333 respectively.

This is the first Asian Games where male artistic swimmers will compete. Men made their debut in the event at the 2015 FINA World Championships, and will be competing at the Olympics for the first time in Paris next year.

Teams can have up to two male members, though there are only two in total competing in Hangzhou: China's Shi Haoyu and Thailand's Kantinan Adisaisiributr.

In the last four Asian Games, the gold and silver medal positions in duet have been exactly the same, with China in first place followed by Japan. Kazakhstan took bronze in 2014 and 2018.