Singapore's artistic swimmers gear up for home World C'ships with bronze in World Cup series
Team Singapore's Kiera Lee (from left), Debbie Soh, and Yvette Chong took home third place in the Duets for World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2025 series PHOTO: SINGAPORE AQUATICS
SINGAPORE – In their final international outing ahead of the July 11-Aug 3 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, the Republic's artistic swimmers earned a confidence-boosting overall bronze medal at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final in Xi'an, China.
Debbie Soh, 27, Yvette Chong, 17, and Kiera Lee, 16, won the bronze in the duet category of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Series, which also came with a US$10,000 (S$12,800) prize money.
Soh and Lee scored 183.6818 during their duet free routine at the Super Final in China on June 14, which placed them eighth out of 11 pairs in China.
Chinese twins Lin Yanjun and Yanhan won the gold medal with 266.1442 points to finish ahead of duets from Spain and Japan.
But Spain took the overall gold and US$15,000, while Kazakhstan bagged a silver as well as US$12,000 in the duet category of the World Cup Series.
Chong said: 'It is a huge confidence boost ahead of the World Aquatics Championships. It reassures us that we're on the right track and gives us momentum for a strong showing as the host country.'
For Soh, it is a milestone in a long campaign.
'It felt like our season began in December 2024, right after the exam period. Since then, we've been training six days a week, for about five to 10 hours a day, and have gone through multiple intensive training camps. It's been a challenging and hectic few months, but we stayed focused and motivated to rise above the challenges we faced along the way,' said Soh.
The youngest of the trio, Kiera added: 'We feel very fulfilled that our efforts were rewarded. It wasn't in our expectations at all. We were more focused on hitting personal bests at every stop of the World Cup series, so we were taken aback by the final world ranking.'
Final rankings are calculated based on the score from the Super Final and the top two scores from the rest of the series. To be ranked in the world series, teams must participate in at least two out of its three legs, plus the Super Final.
The first three legs were in Paris, France (Feb 28-March 2), Somabay, Egypt (April 11-13) and Markham, Canada (May 1-3) before the June 13-15 Super Final in Xi'an.
The artistic swimming national team's performance director Anastasia Goutseva said that the bronze was an 'incredible recognition for the athletes and the hard work they have put in throughout the year'.
She added: 'The third-place overall ranking came as a bit of a surprise, but it shows that you have to dream big. It is a historic result for Singapore, and we are very happy that the team's effort has paid off.'
Goutseva said that the duet (technical) score in Paris, the duet (free) in Egypt and their performances in the Super Final in Xi'an earned them the bronze.
In Egypt, Chong and Soh had combined for 184.8755 points in the duet free to place 14th out of 23 and in Paris they scored 238.3992 to finish sixth out of 21 in the duet technical.
Meanwhile, on the final day of competition on June 15, Rachel Thean scored 195.3688 to finish eighth out of 10 competitors in the women solo free while Singapore finished eighth out of nine teams in the team acrobatic event with a score of 144.2251.
On the artistic swimmers' performance in the series, Goutseva said: 'Overall, we are very satisfied. There has been clear improvement from one world series to the next. After each competition, we make the necessary changes and modifications to our routines based on feedback from the judges and technical controllers.
'We had set specific goals for this year, and we can definitely see the progress here in Xi'an.'
Ranked second only to the Olympics in prestige for water sports, the July 11-Aug 3 world championships will see over 2,500 athletes from more than 190 countries compete in six aquatic disciplines – swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving – across various venues in Singapore.
As they make their final preparations ahead of the home showcase, Goutseva said: 'Singapore is committed to raising the level of artistic swimming, and while there is still a lot of work to be done, we are positive and motivated. Our focus is to push the team as far as we can and help them achieve their fullest potential on home soil.'
Deepanraj Ganesan is a sports journalist at The Straits Times focusing on football, athletics, combat sports and policy-related news.
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