Austrian sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina Alexandri win first world title in free duet a month after clinching ticket to Paris 2024

The sisters flew to the top of the podium at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships with a condor-inspired free routine, beating defending champions from China and exciting new duet from Japan.

2 minBy Lena Smirnova
An underwater shot of two female artistic swimmers performing bird-like movements with their hands.

(Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

Austria's artistic swimmers Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina Alexandri capped off a triumphant season with their first world title, winning the women’s free duet at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Thursday (20 July).

The Austrian sisters finished first in the preliminary round with 251.4313 points and improved on that score in the final, collecting 255.4583 thanks to added difficulty and improved artistic impression.

The world title comes less than one month after the 25-year-old triplets - sister Vasiliki serves as a reserve – swept gold in duets at the 2023 European Games and secured Austria a quota at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

If the Austrian Olympic Committee selects them to be part of the Paris 2024 delegation, the upcoming Games will mark a third Olympic appearance for the sisters.

Free duets: Portraying flight, speed and power

In Fukuoka, the Austrian duet performed a free routine inspired by the condor, the world’s largest flying bird. The swimmers portrayed the condor's flight with bird-like movements and lifts.

Defending champions from China, Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi, finished 0.2103 points behind with a cheetah-inspired routine.

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Yasunaga Mashiro and 15-year-old Higa Moe also tried to bring the power of the natural world to the pool in Fukuoka. The Japanese duet, which was formed eight months ago, executed explosive acrobatic moves to mimic the movements of a black panther and earned a bronze medal with 249.5167 points.

The silver medallists from the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, Ukrainian twin sisters Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva, were second in the preliminary round and looked poised to challenge for gold thanks to a routine with the highest degree of difficulty.

But they opted to lower the risk factor in the final, dropping the difficulty level, and finished sixth.

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