The Spanish mixed free duo, with Dennis González and Mireia Hernández, did not fail and won the silver medal in the competition that closes artistic swimming in this World Cup, in a test in which China once again took the lead and Mexico completed the podium. It is the sixth medal of the Spanish delegation in the World Swimming Championships, the fourth in synchronized, after the silver achieved by the technical team and Dennis González in the free solo and the bronze by Alisa Ozhogina and Iris Tió in the technical duo. The other two have been achieved by María de Valdés, a silver in the 10 km open water swimming, and the historic bronze by Adrián Abadía and Nico García in the synchronized 3 m springboard, the first Spanish medal in a World Cup in history.
In the free duo, the Asians Wentao Cheng and Haoyu Shi added 224.1437 points, while the Spaniards went up to 208.3583. The fight for bronze was closer between the Mexicans Trinidad Meza and Diego Villalobos, with 192.5772 points, and the Colombians Jennifer Cerquera and Gustavo Sánchez went up to 191.8729. The exercise of Dennis González, who after two fourth places achieved a silver in the free solo, and Mireia Hernández is based on a composition of hip hoptaken from the film Step Up. It is a new routine, which they premiered at this World Cup, with very lively music that allows them a very dynamic, strong choreography with a good technical level. Beyond the medal, and that Spain achieved less than in the last World Cup (7-4), the great success of Spanish artistic swimming, a team coached by Mayuko Fujiki, is the achievement of Olympic places in the team competition and in duos for the Paris Games. In the capital of light, Spain will have the maximum representation in this specialty and has well-founded medal aspirations.
After the competition, Dennis González and Mireia Hernández admitted their satisfaction at having won silver. González acknowledged that throughout the championship they have been “super tense.” “We were left with the bad feelings of the technical duo and we thought about giving everything in the free duo, in which we were going with an added technical difficulty, but China has increased it even more,” he indicated. The Kallipolis swimmer commented that they swam the same routine as in the preliminary. “We did it very calmly and to be sure, we did even better than we thought,” he said. Dennis González commented that it has been a complicated championship due to the overexertion made. “I had to do more routines than in the previous World Cup and I also had a problem with my arms, practically from the first day, but I have focused on the competition, step by step, day by day, and the last day has arrived and “We have finished in the best way,” he insisted.
Her partner in the duets, Mireia Hernández, felt proud of what she had achieved. “It has been a very long championship, there are many tests and with these new regulations you never know what you are going to be exposed to,” said the swimmer. “We were left with the thorn in the technical (exercise) that in the final a base mark It took us to fourth place, nowhere near the podium, and I think we gave it our all today,” he said. Mireia Hernández explained that the work is not just hers and Dennis González’s: “It is true that we are the ones who jump into the pool, but there are many people who participate so that we are there,” she insisted. Regarding the balance—four medals in synchronized swimming at this World Cup—Hernández stated that she was satisfied, but that she can always improve. “What makes sport magical is the ambition to always want to go a little further. It has been a very short season, the previous World Cup was not even half a year ago and the improvement has been incredible, we have increased difficulty in all the routines and maintaining the artistic theme that is the beautiful part of Spain,” she insisted.