Tears of joy as China pull through to retain team title

Overcome by emotion at the end of their routine, China's artistic swimming coach Zhang Xiaohuan shed tears of joy as she planted a kiss on the cheek of each and every one of her swimmers.

- Melvyn Teoh

Her team had scored 348.4779 points to retain their title in the team free category at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) Arena on July 20.

Japan were second (334.7232), with Spain (321.1328) taking home the bronze.

Zhang believes that had she not made three technical changes after the Artistic Swimming World Cup in Xi'an, China in June, they would not have been on the podium.

"Overall I am very happy with our performance and despite having faced some difficulties leading up to this, we managed to pull through," the 44-year-old said in Mandarin.

China's Xu Huiyan, who won the women's solo technical event a day earlier, said: "Coach had aimed for us to score 350 points, but we were happy nonetheless.

"Last year (at the WCH in Doha), I was merely a spectator and today I am a competitor. It is a huge change, there is pressure, but the goal is just to do my best."