Soto claims historic artistic swimming gold as China continues winning run

FUKUOKA, Japan -- Spain's Fernando Diaz Del Rio Soto became the first male solo winner in artistic swimming as China kept their dream of a second consecutive clean sweep of diving golds alive at the World Aquatics Championships here on Monday.

The 20-year-old Soto scored 224.555 points to win the debutante solo technical event, followed by American Kenneth Gaudet on 216.8000 points and Kazakhstan's Eduard Kim on 216.000.

Male swimmers have competed in the mixed events for years but it is the first time for World Aquatics to introduce men's solo events and mixed team event, the acrobatic, to this year's World Championships.

"I think it is something that only after a few days I will really understand what is happening," said Soto of the landmark victory. "I feel so relieved and happy that the result of so much work has arrived. It is a very gratifying feeling. I'm still in shock. I cannot believe it."

China's Shi Haoyu, the only male swimmer in the Chinese team, became the day's other lucky winner. China, consisting of one man and seven women, scored 238.0033 points for the team acrobatic gold medal.

The United States took silver on 232.4033 and Japan finished third on 220.5867. The United States and Japan each had a female member.

"Our performance today is nearly perfect," said Shi. "We are completely immersed in the show and I think everybody has performed their best."

Artistic swimming was added in 1984 to the Olympic program in Los Angeles, but only women had been allowed to compete. In 2015, the world championships introduced the mixed duet event.

Last December, World Aquatics said that men will be allowed to compete in Olympic artistic swimming from the 2024 Games onward.

The day's two diving gold medals were both awarded to the all-conquering Chinese team, which has increased their title to seven.

Chang Yani completed a hat-trick of world titles in the women's three-meter synchronized springboard with her partner Chen Yiwen while Lian Junjie and Yang Hao retained the men's 10-meter synchronized platform gold.

China, who swept all 13 diving gold medals in last year's Budapest worlds, is on track to repeat that performance this year.