Chigirev on refereeing at the World Cup: “If I were the Chinese team, I would appeal”

Double Olympic champion in synchronized swimming Vlad Chigireva believes that the refereeing of the technical program at the World Championships in Japan raises questions, in particular, concerning the Chinese team.

The Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships are the first to be held under the new synchronized swimming rules. The Chinese team, which won the qualification of the technical program, became the seventh in the final.

– Of course, I am very happy that the program I participated in took second place. And I’m very happy for the Italian team. There’s a half-Russian girl standing there. All this adds light to the soul. But I disagree with China. They should come first. It was the purest and most terrible performance – it is not clear why they were deducted points.

Spain did very well, abruptly, but in the end they fell – there were dirty drawings, it was out of sync. China held on until the end. For me, the ranking is China, Spain, or Italy or Japan, which made its program quite cleanly.

I’m happy for the Italians, but not for China. In their place, I would lodge an appeal, I have to defend myself, but we have the feeling that everyone has hung up their noses and lowered their hands – it will be like that. It is necessary to underline the imperfection of the system.

Nonetheless, I can say that I shrugged off the outrage at the new rules. Of course, I’m sorry that there are no Russian and Belarusian teams, but I adapt to the conditions and it’s interesting for me to watch that. It’s interesting how people go from last place to first. World Aquatics should publish a book explaining why the judges made such and such a decision. The World Cup is the most unpredictable. I’m glad I had the privilege to comment and watch this live. I’m glad that “Match” shows it live – it’s cool that we can watch all this, work on other people’s mistakes and take a thorough approach to staging our programs, – said Chigireva “”.

and other holding channels broadcast the 2023 World Aquatics Championships live. Chigireva comments on the synchronized swimming competitions of this world championship on Match holding channels.