BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Yukiko Inui, Rio 2016 bronze medallist, won the solo event on the second competition day of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series in Paris on Saturday, according to world swimming governing body FINA.
Being one of the two clear favorites of the event, the 29-year-old Japanese achieved 91.7667 points for gold.
France's Eve Planeix, 19, jumped to the second position with 84.9667 until the middle of the event. She was sixth at the European Championships in 2018 in Glasgow and ninth in Budapest Worlds 2017. But the French girl could only maintain the second position until Marta Fiedina of Ukraine swam and ended up pocketing the silver medal at stake.
Happy with her program, Eve said in an interview with the French Swimming Federation: "Paris is the first stage of the World Series 2019 so it is always good to leave a mark at the beginning of the season. There is still a lot of work to be done because this morning was the first time I was presenting this routine in a competition context. I am pretty happy with it though!"
Marta was definitely one of the other medal contenders. She captured the silver medal for her incredibly elegant and graceful program that she swam under the theme "Secret of the Future". She collected 91.0000. The Ukrainian was also silver at the Junior World Championships last year.
In the mixed duet free, veteran duet from Japan, composed of Yumi Adachi and Atsushi Abe did not disappoint and took the gold with 87.4667.
Berta Ferreras and Pau Ribes of Spain achieved 83.9667 for silver and Brazil's Giovana Stephan/Renan Souza completed the podium, achieving 78.6333 for bronze.
Paris was the first stop of the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series. A total of 25 teams took part in the stop, while China missed the event.
The free combination, team free and duet free finals will be held on Sunday.
