Sawt Falasteen - Artistic swimming men finally get the pool to themselves

Every competitor in the solo technical final on Friday ended up on the podium. Spaniard Fernando Diaz del Rio was second and Serbian Ivan Martinovic a distant third.

But the trio had drawn a historic line in the water.

"It was really important to be here, for the judges to finally see men competing in this event," said Minisini.

"It was a historical moment, and I can't wait to see where our sport is heading now. Being the first guys to compete in this event was magical."

It was the first of a potential quartet of medals for Minisini who won the mixed free duet with Lucrezia Ruggiero on Saturday. They will go for the technical duet gold on Monday and repeat their success at the World Championships, in Budapest in June when they won both events.

On Sunday, Minisini will go for a second solo medal in the free event.

For Minisini, who took up the sport at the age of four, artistic swimming is a family affair. His mother Susanna De Angelis is a former competitor and his father Roberto a former international judge in the discipline.

"Finally!" said Virginie Dedieu, the former three-time French world champion. "There's no reason why it shouldn't exist."

Minisini competed when synchronised swimming first admitted men at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, but only if they were accompanied by a woman.

It was a major innovation for the sport often associated with grace and elegance, supposedly 'feminine' qualities.

- 'Blue for boys, pink for girls' -

"They always say blue for boys, pink for girls, or dance for girls and judo for boys. No, you can do everything," said Dedieu.

"It's an opportunity to say (to little boys) that it's possible. If you feel like it, go for it."

In Sunday's free event, Minisini, del Rio and Martinovic will be joined by a fourth entrant, Frenchman Quentin Rakotomalala, who said competing had sometimes been socially tricky.

"Today it's better, but when I was a kid, I could see the incomprehension, the questioning in people's eyes."

"Sometimes I was ashamed to say I was doing it, so I said I was just swimming. I used to hang out with kids who didn't understand that a boy could do a female sport. But now I've come to terms with it," he continues.

"(What I liked) was the artistic side, the dancing side. I've loved water since I was a kid. All of that mixed together, it was really made for me."

Martinovic said he wanted more company in the pool after finishing last but collecting a medal.

"It was my first ever technical solo and my first ever big international competition," he said.

"I have only been training in artistic swimming for 10 months."

"I would like to invite other athletes from Serbia and the region to join in, give artistic swimming a chance and enjoy doing so. It's not fun being the only one."

I.Yassin--SF-PST