Synchronized swimmers Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer won silver in the freestyle duets at the World Swimming Championships in Doha. A unique achievement by the twin sisters from Hoofddorp, because the Netherlands has never won a medal at a World Championships in synchronized swimming before.
With this top ranking and the fourth place in the final of the technical performance, Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer are almost certainly also qualified for the Paris Olympic Games.
The Chinese duo Liuyi and Qianyi Wang were better, just like in the qualifications. The difference in the final was minimal. The Chinese twins totaled 250.7729. The British women finished third with a score of 247.2626.
National coach Esther Jauma described her state of mind as “super proud and happy” and called the sisters’ performance “incredible”. There were some doubts beforehand because competitors such as Great Britain and Spain had significantly increased the difficulty level of their exercise for the final. “In the qualifications we had the English and Spanish women just behind us, but they went up by 2 and 3 points. We could still go up a little, but we did not have that many reserves anymore,” said Noortje de Brouwer, through the intervention of the KNZB swimming association. . “We were scared for a moment because we really wanted to keep that second place.”
Difficulty
The score was almost even good for gold, but the Chinese women did slightly better. Bregje de Brouwer: “We are fourth and second here. Assuming we go to the Games, we will have to work on increasing the difficulty a little. But that should not be at the expense of the artistry. We must not forget that we also score well on that. You see countries that only go for the difficulty and then compromise on artistry.” Like her sister, disbelief was still great. “I can’t realize it yet.”
In the qualifications the difference with the 27-year-old Chinese multiple world champions was more than 6 points. In the final, barely three tenths remained. On behalf of Great Britain, Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe received the bronze.