Canada wins bronze in team free event at artistic swimming World Cup Super Final

Canada's artistic swimmers continued to shine at the World Cup Super Final on Saturday, with two more podium finishes in Oviedo, Spain.

The Canadian team closed the second day of competition with bronze in the team free event after earning a score of 217.2104. Canada improved upon its fourth-place finish in Friday's team technical event.

"We've grown so much as a team over the past week," team captain Kenzie Priddell said. "We all have a common goal and together, we share the same energy, the same fire. Today, we were able to switch our focus from being worried about mistakes to leaving fear behind and concentrating on performing well."

Priddell reached the podium alongside Sydney Carroll, Laurianne Imbeau, Jonnie Newman, Raphaelle Plante, Claire Scheffel, Florence Tremblay and Olena Verbinska, along with alternates Audrey Lamothe and Kiara Quieti.

Israel captured gold with 256.1375 points, while Spain finished ahead of Canada for silver (247.866).

The Canadian squad is gearing up for this summer's World Aquatics Championships, running from July 14-30 in Fukuoka, Japan, and the Pan American Games (Oct. 20-Nov. 5).

"I'm very happy for this hard-working group of athletes," Canada head coach Gábor Szauder said. "Our objective is to keep progressing throughout the season to reach our maximum potential for the Pan Am Games, and now we're going to be able to build on this success as we keep learning how to compete."

Lamothe kicked off the second day of competition with bronze in the women's solo free event — her second medal in as many days. She captured bronze in the women's solo technical on Friday with a personal-best performance.

The 18-year-old from Montreal earned 191.6500 points to secure her second podium of the season in the solo free. Lamothe claimed bronze in the solo free and solo technical in March in Markham, Ont.

She was credited with 25.7000 in total difficulty on Saturday, just five points shy of her declared degree and an improvement of more than nine points from her performance earlier this month at the World Cup in Montpellier, France.

"We've added a tremendous amount of difficulty to my free routine since the last event in Montpellier, and today my goal was to swim cleanly to reach the highest degree of difficulty possible," Lamothe said.

Two-time Olympic medallist Inui Yukiko of Japan (252.2895) and Iris Tio Casas of Spain (219.1000) won gold and silver, respectively, for the second straight day.

Jonnie Newman and Kenzie Priddell finished seventh in the duet technical event during the afternoon session with 207.7467 points.

The competition concludes on Sunday with the duet free and acrobatic routine events.