Katy Konin and Aya Mazor finished eighth in the free duet final at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris on Saturday, capping an improved showing from Israel's artistic swimming duo at the continent's showcase event.
Scoring 248.8000 points at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, the pair climbed from 11th place in the preliminaries. Sport5 reports their artistic impression mark rose by almost five points between the two performances, alongside a cleaner execution and greater difficulty in the routine.
The final tally was enough to finish ahead of duets from Britain, Switzerland and Georgia, with Belarus placed just behind them in ninth, according to the report.
Eighth is a modest placing by medal standards, but for a program that has spent recent years chasing parity with Europe's traditional powers, jumping three spots between prelims and final says as much about the trajectory as the ranking itself.
Mazor is one of the more established names in Israel's current artistic swimming generation. She competed in the mixed duet technical alongside Yogev Dagan at last year's World Aquatics Championships, experience that showed in the composure of the Paris routine.
The championships mark the first time the European Aquatics Championships have been held in France since Strasbourg in 1987, staged at the same Saint-Denis venue that hosted artistic swimming at the 2024 Olympics.
Konin and Mazor's work in Paris is not finished. Israel's team was scheduled to compete in the free group routine preliminaries the day after the duet final, giving the delegation another chance to add to its tally before the championships close out later in the week.
