PARIS, Aug 10 — China led at the halfway point in the duet artistic swimming competition at the Paris Olympics on Friday, with the country's team of twin sisters closely followed behind by twins representing Austria and the Netherlands.

The sibling teams dominated the technical routine, with a fourth pair of twins, from Ukraine, sitting in fifth place.

China had claimed the gold medal in the team competition on Wednesday with a big lead, but with the duet pair just 9.5 points ahead of Austria and others not far behind, numerous pairs have a shot at gold ahead of Saturday's free routine.

The Chinese team of Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi dazzled in green and pink multi-coloured swimsuits with a performance titled "Lotus." The music began with bright and airy melodies and the twins flowed through the water gracefully, with one sister lifting the other who performed a backflip into the water. The routine topped the night with 276.78 points.

On the other hand, Austria's Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini-Marina Alexandri – two of a set of triplets – struck a fierce tone in their routine set to the song "We will rock you" by Queen. The crowd clapped along while the sisters hit the water in time with the beat. They sit in silver medal position with 267.25 points.

The Netherlands' Bregje de Brouwer and Noortje de Brouwer are in third place with 264.7 points. The twins wore dark blue swimsuits, swimming with a disco theme to the song "Far from over" by Frank Stallone.

The competition on Friday was at times tense, as the judges replayed and reviewed portions of several teams' performance. They reviewed the United States' routine for several minutes as the swimmers looked on nervously. The team of Jaime Czarkowski and Megumi Field ended the night in 11th place.

The medals in the duet event will be awarded on Saturday following the free routine. — Reuters