Mayuko Fujiki: "Spanish athletes have matured and grown a lot in Budapest"

MADRID, 26 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish artistic swimming coach, Mayuko Fujiki, has assured that the internationals "have matured and grown a lot" at the Budapest 2022 World Swimming Championships, where the team has won a bronze medal in the 'highlight' modality.

"After Tokyo we wanted to look towards Paris, we have three years of work and we had to think about how we could climb higher in the rankings. We had to see the strategy very clearly, not compete everything, but what new things we wanted to show here in Budapest", explained in statements provided by the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation (RFEN).

"2The bet was the free team, surpassing Italy, and the highlight, with the best possible result, in this case the bronze medal. The team has a daily commitment in training, and if something happens, such as the Sara's injury -Saldaña-, we changed the chip and we see how we can improve as quickly as possible. Here in Budapest the Spanish athletes have matured and have grown a lot", he added.

Fujiki also valued the performance of the young soloist Iris Tió. "Iris, after Tokyo, is a new soloist after Ona, but you had to be careful. She's shy and she's the youngest in the team. You didn't have to give everything in the first competition and go little by little so that your head could handle the solo better in the World Cup. After the competition, three judges told us that it was the best solo performance in the World Cup. We have left a very good image of a Spanish soloist after Ona's career," he said.

Finally, he talked about the new rules that are coming. "Basically everything will change, the way of scoring, the elements to choose... The change will be big, it will change the way of choreographing and the strategy. It will take us a while to adapt well," she concluded.

For his part, the president of the RFEN, Fernando Carpena, assured that the balance of Spanish art has been "positive and hopeful". "It is a discipline in which everyone is expectant with the change in regulations that apparently will be applied immediately and with a view to Paris 2024. We are going to see this consolidation of a young and inexperienced team that has been verified here in Budapest," he noted.

"It is true that, at the level of results, the non-presence of Russia can be a way of undermining objectivity but, in general, we have taken a step forward and now we have to see how our technical team and our athletes adapt to these new rules that seem imminently going to be approved at the technical congress to be held in October this year", he concluded.