Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda, who together won silver at the World Swimming Championships last year, got off to a flying start when they placed first after the duet technical routine on the opening day of the Japan Open on Monday.
The Japanese pair earned 9.8s from all judges for execution and overall impression for a total of 49.000 points, taking the lead over Canada's Fanny Letourneau and Courtenay Stewart, who finished second with 47.834.