Russia’s Ishchenko wins solo synchro gold at worlds

KAZAN, Russia: Russia’s Natalya Ishchenko won a record 18th career synchronized swimming gold medal at the world championships on Wednesday with victory in the solo free routine.
Ishchenko’s program scored 97.2333 points to beat China’s Huang Xuechen by 1.5333 points.
The bronze went to Ona Carbonell of Spain on 94.9 points.
Ishchenko’s win moves her one ahead of her longtime duet partner Svetlana Romashina, who has 17 world championship gold medals.
“I actually try not to count how many medals I have,” Ishchenko said. “Each final is a big responsibility and I approach them with real seriousness and today I was really worried.”
A potential 19th career world gold awaits Ishchenko on Thursday when she and Romashina compete in the duet free routine.
Ishchenko took a break after the 2012 Olympics to raise a family and the world championships were her first major competition since her comeback.
“I knew everyone was going to be looking at me, that there’d be focused attention on how I do after two years away,” she said. Ishchenko is aiming to add to her three Olympic gold medals at next year’s games in Rio de Janeiro.
Russia has won four of the five synchronized swimming gold medals so far at the world championships in Kazan, with the host nation’s only defeat coming in the mixed duet technical routine, won by Christina Jones and Bill May of the United States.