World Cup medal 'huge confidence boost' for c'ships

In their final international outing ahead of the July 11-Aug 3 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, the Republic's artistic swimmers earned a confidence-boosting overall bronze medal at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Super Final in Xi'an, China.

- Deepanraj Ganesan

Debbie Soh, 27, Yvette Chong, 17, and Kiera Lee, 16, won the bronze in the duet category of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Series, which also came with US$10,000 (S$12,800) in prize money.

Soh and Lee scored 183.6818 during their duet free routine at the Super Final in China on June 14, which placed them eighth out of 11 pairs in China.

Chinese twins Lin Yanjun and Yanhan won the gold medal with 266.1442 points to finish ahead of duets from Spain and Japan.

But Spain took the overall gold and US$15,000, while Kazakhstan bagged a silver as well as US$12,000 in the duet category of the World Cup Series.

Chong said: "It is a huge confidence boost ahead of the World Aquatics Championships. It reassures us that we're on the right track and gives us momentum for a strong showing as the host country."

For Soh, it is a milestone in a long campaign.