Asian Games | Chinese cultural elements shine as China leads in artistic swimming on opening day

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- China made a strong start to the artistic swimming competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, ranking first in both the duet technical routine and mixed team acrobatic routine on the opening day.

The artistic swimming competition at the Games features two events -- duet and team. The former consists of technical and free routines, while the latter comprises acrobatic, technical and free routines.

In the duet technical routine, China's Lin Yanjun and Xu Huiyan performed "Warriors of moon shadow," incorporating elements of Chinese martial arts into their routine.

The pair brought the spirit of martial arts to the water, performing sharp kicks and dynamic movements in sync with the music. They scored 317.5108 points to take the lead, ahead of Japan's Moe Higa and Tomoka Sato on 309.8432 points.

"We performed quite steadily today and showed what we have practiced in training," Xu said after the event. "We hope to complete all the declared difficulty elements in the free routine and present what we want to express to everyone."

In the mixed team acrobatic routine, China performed "Soul of the Terracotta Army," a routine that previously won gold at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final and the swimming worlds.

Dressed in armor-inspired costumes, the Chinese squad portrayed Terracotta Warriors in the water, showcasing a distinctive blend of strength and grace. They executed the routine smoothly to score 246.0977 points and rank first, while Japan finished second with 234.5992 points.

"Overall, we are quite satisfied with our performance today," said Chinese team captain Chang Hao. "The acrobatic routine is inherently full of uncertainty and risk. Unexpected situations and mistakes can also occur in training. Today's performance was probably our best-quality execution of this routine in recent times, so we brought our best form to the competition."

Head coach Zhang Xiaohuan also praised the team's performance. "The athletes performed well overall today. This was also the best I have seen them perform this routine," she said.

Zhang said that the new rules in artistic swimming have increased the uncertainty of competition, making it more important for China to focus on its own performance. "First of all, we need to execute our technical elements well. Only by doing our best, completing all the declared difficulty elements and then competing with our opponents can we do justice to all the effort and hard work we have put into our preparations," she added.

On Sunday, the duet event will award its gold medal after the free routine, while the team competition will feature the technical routine.