JAKARTA, Aug. 26 -- Competing in their third Asian Games, China's artistic swimming star sisters Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting vowed here on Sunday to earn their third duet title at the Jakarta Asian Games.
Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting, winners of 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, both gave births and walked away from the sport for three years but returned to the pool by taking the national crowns and world silver medals in 2017.
"Despite the water is a little bit cold and the wind is breezing inside of the pool, we are ready for the competition to be kicked off tomorrow morning," said Wenwen, who finished warm-up training on Sunday.
"We will show our Flamingo in the technique routine and the Swans in the free routine. Both routines had been performed but are reconstructed this year. The degree of difficulty, the speed and the choreography are different from the previous ones," Ting Ting added.
The Jiang sisters, 31 years old, are two of four athletes to have won a record five gold medals in artistic swimming events at the Asian Games. Miya Tachibana of Japan and Sun Wenyan from China are the other two swimmers.
If the Jiang sisters claim the duet title in Jakarta, they will set up a record that no athlete older than 27 has won a medal in artistic swimming at the Asian Games.
"We are not thinking about record but concentrate on our competition," Wenwen smiled.
There will be two events, duet and team, in artistic swimming at the 2018 Asian Games as China has won all eight gold medals on offer of the sport since 2006 Asian Games.