Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe take historic World Cup gold

Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe won the first gold medal in an Olympic discipline inside Paris’ brand new Olympic Aquatics Centre at the weekend.

The British duet took top spot in the Technical Duet at the second leg of the World Aquatics World Cup –  which is one of the test events for the Paris Olympic Games this summer.

Swimming last, the Bristol based duo scored 260.0517 points for their Big Ben inspired routine as they layed down a marker ahead of their second Olympic Games.

They finished less than two points ahead of 2023 World Champions Moe Higa and Mashiro Yasunaga of Japan as the Brits powered to victory to continue their fine form.

Speaking to Nick Hope and World Aquatics after the victory, Shortman said: “I actually didn’t really realise at first (that they’d won), I was like ‘oh cool we’re first’ then I was like ‘we swam last we won!’

“It’s a cool moment, we’re gold medallists in the Olympic pool in the first time we’ve swum in it. It’s just good to get that experience under the belt and give us confidence for the final Olympic push.

Thorpe added: “It was really nice actually because we had a lot of people in the crowd cheering for us today so hopefully it will replicate what it will be like in Paris for the Olympics.

“It was a real nice buzz which gave us a bit more energy for the swim as well.”

“We’re hungry for more”

Back in February, Shortman and Thorpe won the nations first artistic swimming World Championship medals in Olympic disciplines and now after this result the pair are delighted that they’re heading in the right direction.

Thorpe continued:  “It does bring a bit of pressure (after their success in Doha) but we just focus on what we can do and we’ve just been training really hard since the World Championships. We didn’t want to get complacent because we did swim well in Doha and we want to keep going on that upwards trajectory towards Paris and the Olympics.

“So our coach has been very much keeping us in check for sure so there’s no slipping back and it’s nice to see that we’re still heading in the right direction.

Shortman added: “Even when we got the gold then she was like ‘it’s good but you can do better’. So it’s good that even with not 100% our best swim we can still come away with a gold and there’s so much we can work on.

“We’re not getting complacent at all, we’re not in that place but we’re just hungry for more and what’s to come.”

Great Britain’s Junior Duet of Eve Young and Florence Blinkhorn also competed in the Technical Duet in Paris in what was just their second senior international competition.

They two teenagers improved massively since their debut in China, improving their total by more than 40 marks as they scored 190.4200 which was the 15^th highest total.

Young and Blinkhorn also took part in the Duet Free, ending up in 19^th place with a score of 142.7585 as they gained more experience in a field packed full of senior athletes.

There was also a welcome return to competition for the GB Mixed Duet of Ranjuo Tomblin and Beatrice Crass.

The pair haven’t competed so far this season due to injury but were back in the pool in Paris with a fifth and sixth place in the Mixed Free and Mixed Technical Duet events respectively.

After making history with the nations first ever artistic swimming medal at a European Games last year, the mixed duet put in a pair of solid displays as they prepare to repeat their success at the European Championships next month.

Tomblin also competed in the Male Free Solo event where he also finished sixth where he’ll be aiming for the podium at the Junior World Championships later this year. He scored 125.4833 for his routine.

You can watch back the action from the second leg of the Artistic Swimming World Cup for free on Eurovision Sport and you can find all the results from the competition here.

Here’s what Kate Shortman & Izzy Thorpe had to say to @WorldAquatics after claiming GOLD at the Olympic test event (Artistic Swimming World Cup) in Paris! pic.twitter.com/NIpFnry5dG

— Nick Hope – the athlete’s journalist (@NickHopeTV) May 3, 2024