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Russia strike gold in Olympic synchro duet
= = SYDNEY, Sept 26 (AFP) - Olga Brusnikina and Maria Kisseleva, stripped of their European title this year after Kisseleva failed a drug test, secured Russia's first ever synchronised swimming Olympic medal when they blew away the opposition to win the women's duet gold in Tuesday's free routine final. "This is compensation there's no doubt about it," said 25-year-old Kisseleva, of the trauma of losing their third successive European title after she tested positive for the drug ephedrine following Helsinki last July. "When it happened it was quite a shock. It was a great tragedy. But later we got stronger and tried to forget the situation and put everything into winning the Olympic medal," said Kisseleva. Ironically it was a similar substance to the pseudo-ephedrine for which 16-year-old Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan tested positive and was stripped of her Olympic all-around gold medal earlier Tuesday. "I didn't hear about her situation," said Kisseleva, who only served a one-month suspension. Normally the offence carries a three-month suspension, barring her from the Olympics, but the Russian swimming federation imposed a lighter sentence after Kisseleva pleaded she unwittingly took the substance to control her weight. "It's such a tough sport. You have to be very slim and adhere to a diet and refuse tasty food. You have to sacrifice everything," said her partner Brusnikina. And their sacrifices paid off when they produced a flawless karate-theme routine in Sydney's International Aquatic Centre to the beat of Japanese drums, to defeat second-placed Japanese duo Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda. The Japanese took silver with 98.650 points, with Virginie Dedieu and Myriam Lignot, European champions after the Russians lost their title, winning France's first Olympic synchro medal, a bronze, with 97.437 points. Performing with extraordinary elegence the Russian duo scored a near-perfect 99.580 points, combining 35 percent of Sunday's technical programme and 65 percent of Tuesday's free routine final marks. The world champions achieved maximum points for artistic impression with four out of five judges also awarding perfect 10 scores for technical merit, with the exception of the Japanese judge who awarded 9.9. None of the other duet teams achieved any maximum 10 scores. "We do have some regrets because we made a mistake during the crucial section and we got our legs tangled. We had a little trouble," said Tachibana, who added that they praticed up to 11 hours a day in their bid for perfection. Takeda added: "Technically speaking we realised the Russians had a high skill level so we tried to challenge ourselves and our competitors. We can proudly claim we did very well in this event." The United States, Canada and Japan have won all the medals since the sport was introduced at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and this is the first time that north Americans have failed to medal. Anna Kozlova and Tuesday Middaugh of the United States were fourth with 96.990, with Canadians Claire Carver-Dias and Fanny Letourneau, who performed a bizarre routine to the theme of madness, finishing fifth with 95.984. Twins Carolina and Isabela Moraes, 20, of Brazil, one of the three sets of twins competing in synchronised swimming at these Games, made it to the final but finished 12th and last. The duet competition was making its Olympic comeback after being dropped from the 1996 Atlanta Games.
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