Russia’s synchronized duet of Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina, the reigning Olympic gold medalists and world champions, kicked off Monday morning’s duet technical program session with an impressive “gypsy dancer” routine that earned the pair 96.4577 points. It extended their lead over the field from two points to 3.0889 points. The duet from China is their next-closest competitors, followed by Japan.
The scores from Sunday’s free preliminary routines and the technical programs are combined together to determine which duets move into the final on Tuesday. Then, the scores from the technical routines are added to the free routine final scores to determine the medal winners.
Other high-scoring technical routines included Spain, performing with a theme titled “the water in all shapes” to score 92.5024 points and China, who racked up 95.3688 points with their “Run Boy Run!” routine.
Austria competed a violin-only version of “Smooth Criminal” routine and scored 85.0637 points.
The United States pairing of Concord residents Anita Alvarez and Mariya Koroleva, who sat in ninth place after the free routine preliminary round, tallied 86.4612 points with their “modern violin” themed technical program. They qualified to compete in the final still in ninth place.
